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Monday, September 16, 2013 - Culture Is About Intention - And Deliberate Conversation

Greetings

I have always believed that culture of any kind happens when you bring a group of people together. That means culture happens with or without our conscious design.

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Culture Is About Intention – And Deliberate Conversation

I was so impressed one morning this week when meeting with some business leaders. The conversation centred around driving culture with intention. Wow, what a powerful way to approach this key element of business success.

At many of the events I attend, people constantly want to chat with me about culture. Each person is at a different knowledge point on their journey in this area – including me. Some think culture is simply a set of small initiatives that are supposed to make people happy. Others think of it as just the fluff or soft stuff.

When this kind of conversation rears its ugly head, three things can happen. If my husband is with me, he will put his arms around me to hug me – while holding my arms down so I don’t deck anyone. He will also whisper in my ear, “Be patient, this person could be your next client.”

If my teammate or colleague is with me, they will direct the conversation in another direction. But, if by chance someone is left alone with me who truly thinks culture is fluff, well, they will generally suffer the wrath of a passionate conversation with me (and please note that I am being diplomatic here). It may not be the best approach (apparently I really do have to figure out how to harness my “passion” on the subject).

The interesting thing about culture is that it’s possible to make it overly complicated. This is especially true when you are trying to create a healthy and performance driven culture in your company. Going back to the morning meeting I mentioned earlier, there was much discussion at the table and plenty of wisdom shared. One participant contributed a story about his father who takes every opportunity at family gatherings to talk to each child and grandchild individually about family and family culture. The question is: do leaders in business do this in their own companies? Do they have that deliberate conversation?

Once you have designed your culture there are many channels to drive it – communication being one. And the simplest way to communicate is deliberate and intentional two-way conversations. It is even measurable. How often do you hear employees talking about culture during the course of the day? It’s so simple, deliberate and measurable.

In October, I go to Peru to realize a lifelong dream: to climb Machu Picchu and experience the Inca rich culture that dates back to the early 13^th century. I have also arranged a visit to a remote village to spend some time with village and spiritual leaders. I am curious about how their culture, so rich in values and spiritual grace, has been passed down from generation to generation.

I am excited and grateful for this opportunity. I also believe there will be no surprises. I will most probably witness what the business leaders and I talked about this week: that culture is about intention, and that it is passed down through many channels, including deliberate two-way conversations. I am, however, curious to learn how these conversations are executed outside of our western culture.

Have a great September. I look forward to sharing my journey with all of you in October.

Warmly, Bea

Great Organization

Crisis Support Centre

At the Crisis Support Centre we save lives and change lives. We help Edmonton and our surrounding communities deal with the stresses of daily life and the situations that no one should go through alone. By phone, in person, and online, we’re always available. We offer immediate support for crises that can’t be put on hold.

Great Read

The No Complaining Rule
Author: Jon Gordon
Publisher: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated 6/20/2008

Negativity in the workplace costs businesses billions of dollars and impacts the morale, productivity and health of individuals and teams. "In The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity at Work, Jon Gordon, a bestselling author, consultant and speaker, shares an enlightening story that demonstrates how you can conquer negativity and inspire others to adopt a positive attitude." Based on one company’s successful No Complaining Rule, the powerful principles and actionable plan are practical and easy-to-follow, making this book an ideal read for managers, team leaders and anyone interested in generating positive energy.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

September 2013

Building High Reliability

Bea Bohm-Meyer is founder of The Bohm-Meyer Group, a company dedicated to helping companies leverage corporate culture. Bea has 20 years experience in corporate culture design and transformation. She is known for developing a highly successful corporate culture assessment process that identifies key opportunities for employee engagement and business performance. Her ability to help companies design a strong management infrastructure and performance culture, by getting people moving in the same direction, provides a tremendous competitive advantage. Her experience studying and working with high reliability industries such as aviation and NASA has guided her to believe, “when a company focuses on its culture, performance becomes second nature”.

Bea is one of Edmonton’s Fab 5 and a founding member of the Amazing Ladies. Now, if you ask her 14 year old son, Liam what his mom does for a living, he would tell you, "She makes the world a better place one company at a time." –True story.

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Tuesday, July 9, 2013 - Performance Management Reinforces Your Culture and Relationships

Greetings

“Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is to be affirmed, to be validated, to be appreciated”.

- Steven Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

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Performance Management Reinforces Your Culture and Relationships

I remember, some years ago, listening to Marcus Buckingham¹ speak about managing performance. He asked why people are so good at focusing on what isn’t working when it is more beneficial to focus on what is working. He shared a story, which I will never forget, about a child bringing home a report card. This particular child got an A in Math and a C in English. What does the typical parent do? I know. I have done it. We focus on the C and we start raising questions like, “What happened? Are you studying? What kind of effort did you put in? Do we need to get you additional help?” By this time, we have lost the opportunity to celebrate the A. Do we ever find out what happened to warrant an A? Was it hard work? Passion? Or, perhaps, both? Most importantly, how can we support continued success in this area? Once I heard this story, I never let the opportunity to celebrate the A’s pass by on any report card my children brought home. It made the report card experience so much more meaningful, not only for my children, but for my husband and I as well.

These behaviors often translate to how performance is managed in the work place. The issue here is that many managers supervise employees to ensure that things don’t go wrong in the work place causing them to miss the opportunities to praise what is going right. The interesting fact is: recognizing employees for great performance has many benefits. It is effective at building your culture because you are reinforcing the behaviour and values you want to see. It is profitable because it makes people feel valued. Happy and appreciated employees work harder and provide better customer service and this contributes to growing stronger client loyalty. And finally, recognition builds staff loyalty, lowering employee turn-over, saving time and money on replacement recruitment efforts.

Yes, the argument does make a great business case for staff recognition. Now, let’s talk culture. Does your employee performance strategy align with the very values that drive your company culture? For recognition to work, it must align with four critical components: recognition must be authentic, meaningful, consistent and fair.

Most companies, in some way, include fairness as a value. So I ask the question, does your company recognize good performance and small successes as often as poor performance and failures? I often hear accolades for managers who have employees performing well. Yet, when one member of the team is not performing well, it is generally perceived as the individual who is at fault and not the manager. Often, poor performance is a result of unclear expectation, inconsistent feedback, miscommunication and weak relationships. Do managers really know what triggers low grade performance? In the book, Good Boss Bad Boss² their research showed that 75% of a person’s stress at work comes from their immediate supervisors. Why is that? Are we training managers to successfully understand performance management?

I am not suggesting that we shouldn't address poor performance. Of course we need to, but we can look at this whole issue in a different light. Employees are people, not widgets. To help them be successful you have to develop relationships. When it comes to people, it is always about the relationship and how they fit into the culture. It is the only way to develop trust and that takes time and balance. Leaders and managers must manage the good with the bad. I would even venture to say there must be a whole lot of good going on if you are keeping these employees. Reinforce the good behavior that supports your culture; be authentic and consistent with your feedback. Make employee encounters meaningful. Most importantly, build and value your employee relationships. It is one of the most critical ways to reinforce your culture, as well as grow a trusted, loyal and happy workforce. It is also the only way you will help your employees reach their true potential.

1. Marcus Buckingham is a British-American New York Times bestselling author, researcher, motivational speaker and business consultant best known for promoting what he calls "Strengths."

2. Robert I. Sutton Business Plus (Sep 7 2010). Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best... and Learn from the Worst.

Warmly, Bea

Great Organization

Winnifred Stewart Association

Pancake Breakfast - 11130 131 Street - No charge
Thursday, July 18, 2013

Community Party & Park Renaming (Winnifred Stewart Park) - 116 Avenue & 130 Street - No charge
Saturday, August 17, 2013 - Please RSVP to Candace

Since its establishment in 1953, WSA has evolved, grown, and empowered countless individuals with disabilities to discover their goals and dreams. Through exploration, experience, and sharing stories, Winnifred Stewart Association helps to facilitate meaningful relationships in order to build natural supports in an individual's chosen community. We support individuals with disabilities to realize their goals, and desires, and help to make the resources available and accessible for them to lead fulfilling lives.

Great Article

Blue Ocean Strategy, Harvard Business Review W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

July 2013

Building High Reliability

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Sunday, June 9, 2013 - Culture Will Happen - Whether We Plan It Or Not

Greetings

Two or three times a day, on most days, I hear one critical question and it is music to my ears. “Bea, what is corporate culture?” People get frustrated when I push back and ask “what do you think it is?” The reality is, there is no perfect answer. Corporate culture is complex. The one guarantee, culture is going to evolve with or without you so why not engineer it? The bottom line, build a company you love, with employees you love and the rest will take care of itself.

Please join me as I speak on this topic at the following event:

Dexio June Focus Seminar 2013

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Culture Will Happen - Whether We Plan It Or Not

When I was in Boston, working alongside what is now regarded as high reliability industries, we had a huge task ahead of us. Our goal was to identify what culture really was and what kind of impact it could have on a company and its people. This was no ‘Mickey Mouse’ project. The people sitting at the table represented industries that held safety in the palm of their hands. Included were leaders from aviation, aerospace, the American Military and some of the most recognized and brilliant healthcare experts and physicians in North America. At the time, I also represented healthcare. The challenge we faced was to ensure our industries caused no harm. In reality, one decimal in the wrong place could produce a horrific overdose causing death in any hospital; one wrong decision guiding any plane to a landing pad could cause a catastrophic incident. We studied case after case of preventable incidences and heard story after story of preventable harm. We all agreed on two assumptions: 1) Culture was complex, and 2) only by design can there be high reliability in any culture. I try to share these experiences as best as I can with companies and audiences so we can learn from them. One of the most important things I did learn was that culture has an impact on every nook and cranny of a company. Yes, we all know culture is about values, behaviors and belonging, but all that means nothing if it is not linked to a very complex formula that drives extreme leadership, collaboration, communication, engagement and accountability. Don’t be fooled by the appearance of simplicity. There is yet another layer that then links the engineering of your systems and evaluation model to the aforementioned drivers. Alongside all this is the application of redundancy to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

Values + Drivers + Systems + Redundancy = HIGH RELIABILITY CULTURE

Culture is not simple. It is complex and it is evolving in your company whether you like it or not. The opportunity to understand how to build it, design it and engineer it is not easy, but I guarantee it is worth the investment. If you take care of your culture, your culture will take care of your people and your people will take care of your business. Look at that, a new formula:

GREAT CULTURE = GREAT PEOPLE = GREAT BUSINESS

If you want to hear more about engineering high reliability cultures and happen to be in Edmonton the evening of June 19, 2013, please come to hear me speak about the stories I have learned from. If you have any questions, please send them to me by replying to this email and I will do my best to answer them that evening.

Dexio June Focus Seminar 2013

Have a great June.

Warmly, Bea

Great Organization

Winnifred Stewart Association

Since its establishment in 1953, WSA has evolved, grown, and empowered countless individuals with disabilities to discover their goals and dreams. Through exploration, experience, and sharing stories, Winnifred Stewart Association helps to facilitate meaningful relationships in order to build natural supports in an individual's chosen community. We support individuals with disabilities to realize their goals, and desires, and help to make the resources available and accessible for them to lead fulfilling lives.

Great Read

The Radical Leap
Author: Steve Farber
Published by: Kaplan Publishing - March 3, 2009

The business world is ready for an entirely new approach to leadership, and Steve Farber has written the perfect book to energize business leaders and help them make the leap into extreme leadership. In fact, taking a giant “L.E.A.P” forward is exactly what Farber prescribes. What exactly is an extreme leader? One who cultivates love, generates energy, inspires audacity, and provides proof. In his exciting and innovative new business parable, The Radical Leap, Farber explores an entirely new leadership model, one in which leaders aren’t afraid to take risks, make mistakes in front of employees, or actively solicit employee feedback. His book dispenses with the typical, tired notions of what it means to be a leader.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

June 2013

Building High Reliability

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Thursday, May 23, 2013 - Culture is Synonymous with Feeling

Greetings

May is proving to be a significant month. I took a very impromptu trip with friends to Huatulco, Mexico to celebrate a girlfriend’s birthday. It was a great reminder how precious life is. I cherished my morning runs on the beach and meditating in front of the great Pacific Ocean. I adored and never took for granted the friendship and giggles each day (or should I say each hour). As I reflect on the trip, I can actually say I learned something meaningful each day, especially the morning of my first run.

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Culture is Synonymous with Feeling

Consciously and unconsciously I have spent the last 20 years (yes, I know, I started very young) searching to understand what culture really means. Every day I teach that culture is about belonging. Abraham Maslow describes it best in his hierarchy of needs. According to Maslow, the third human need is to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance in order to grow self confidence, understand one’s own potential and self actualize. Belonging also equates to feeling. It is the emotional connection of belonging that makes this happen. The question is how to actualize and translate the feeling into action. Let me share a story with you that demonstrates this very fact.

Two Wednesdays ago I woke up in Huatulco, Mexico. It was my first morning there and I was so excited to get down to the beach and go for a run. As I was leaving my hotel room, I could hear the waves pounding on the beach. It was hot already with a light breeze. I was thinking how perfect this moment was. As I ran down to the sand, I heard this gentle voice. “Good morning”, he said. I turned to find a young man looking at me. I was sure he was no more than 18 years old. He asked, "How are you this morning?" We had a polite and brief exchange, then he said to me; “Miss, the waves are very angry this morning and I am worried for your safety". He then proceeded to explain that the black flags in front of me meant the waves were extremely dangerous that morning. He showed me how high the tide came in overnight and that sometimes it was better to watch and listen to the waves from a distance than to take a chance on the beach. He offered another option for my run. The way he made me feel, I will tell you, I would have followed any instruction he gave me. The next morning when I went down to the beach, there was a yellow flag. Again, I heard a soft good morning. The same young man smiled at me as he proceeded to tell me that the waves were still strong but, if I wanted to run on the beach, it would be okay. I chose to run and, as I looked back, he was eyeing the life guard on the beach to ensure that I was seen by him. As I ran, that lifeguard never took his eyes off me.

Now let’s translate:
Translation - Emotional Connection - “I am worried about your safety”. How often have you been on a construction site, at an event, or playing sports and heard, “You can’t do that”, instead of, “I want you to get home safely to your family?”

Translation - The security guard explained the threat to my safety so I understood the risk. How often do we tell employees something without ensuring they understand?

Translation - There were high reliability systems with redundancies built in. A flag system alerting me to the safety risks. A security guard ensuring I understood the systems and risks. Finally, a lifeguard monitoring the activity.

Talk about a high reliability road map to a safety culture on the beach. However, in the end, it wasn’t about the culture road map of systems that was the success factor for me, personally, it was the way they made me feel.

“I worry about your safety.”
Translation: “I care about you.”

Warmly, Bea

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Great Seminar

I am excited to be presenting the June Focus seminar for Dexio inc., an organization committed to developing excellence in others. If you would like to join me please click the link below.

Dexio June Focus Seminar 2013

Great Organization

For over 58 years, as the largest youth business education organization in Canada, Junior Achievement (JA) has been inspiring and preparing more than 4 million youth to succeed in an ever-changing global economy.

Last year alone, more than 226,000 students, in 400+ communities, benefited from JA programs that were delivered by over 13,500 dedicated business mentors who presented in excess of 232,000 hours of instructional time.

Each day, Junior Achievement staff and volunteers located in in our National and 15 Charter offices across Canada work hard toward the attainment of one common goal - to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy. Guided by core values, JA aspires to be recognized by businesses, educators and policymakers across the country as the premiere organization for inspiring and preparing youth to be successful, contributing members of a global society.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

May 2013

Building High Reliability

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Monday, April 22, 2013 - How Level 5 Leaders Drive Culture

Greetings

I’ve had such a great April working with some of the best companies in Alberta. Sometimes I think I learn more from them then they learn from me. I know 100% of the time, the leaders of these companies never want to stop learning. They remind me of Darwin Smith, who led Kimberly Clark for over 20 years. When asked by a reporter what the secret to his success was, Darwin always insisted it was his people and a little bit of luck. When pushed to admit something about himself as a leader, Darwin acknowledged he never stopped trying to “qualify for the job”.

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How Level 5 Leaders Drive Culture

Last week I was in Phoenix meeting with the leaders of one of Alberta’s best. This company was officially recognized by Alberta Venture in 2011. During our meetings, we had so many meaningful moments discussing culture. In one discussion, I asked that we talk about why leaders fail. I have to admit the list was long. Most interesting was the very first item discussed. It packed a punch and we all agreed it was the most important belief in becoming a level 5 leader; a leader that inspires results . The exact words shared were, “hard work does not necessarily mean you have arrived.” Bingo! So, when do you know you have arrived?

This very thought made me face a few sleepless nights. The truth is, I was more excited than I was tired thinking about how leaders design and drive their company culture and know when they have arrived. For the purpose of this article, I will list the top six indicators that came out of the several discussions this month.

First, level 5 leaders know that culture is not just about results. In this sense, these leaders know results are important for performance and even to build the confidence of their employees. But, they do not make culture complicated. They inherently know that culture is about results and how employees feel along the way (and yes we can write a thesis on this topic in and of itself). Level 5 leaders are always conscious of how people feel while working to reach goals and building company performance.

Second, level 5 leaders know they are not rock stars 'in the moment'. Level 5 leaders demonstrate actions that are sustainable. They build and model the culture not just for today, but for a long time to come. I just recently learned Lee Iacocca (previous CEO of Chrysler Corporation) was a rock star leader. He made the changes needed for success. Once he arrived and Chrysler was thriving, he then focused on his leadership reputation for successful change instead of continuing to ensure people knew where they belonged long term. Darwin Smith, on the other hand, never took his eye off his people. His priority was to help them get things done and ensure he knew how people felt about the company along the way. Lee and his vision lasted eight years before things started to down-turn. Darwin was around for more than 20 years and chose a successor that aligned with Kimberly Clark’s culture definition. Level 5 leaders drive sustainable cultures.

Third, level 5 leaders lead with humility. They know it is not about them, but about “helping everyone around them succeed” (employees, clients, suppliers and the community). They focus on growing their people and, they do not just listen to their clients but really hear what is being said. Decisions are made with the intent on setting everyone up for success. It is not always easy but one thing is certain, humility always leads the way. Level 5 leaders drive their cultures by helping others succeed.

Fourth, level 5 leaders do not build momentum they are the momentum. They continue to drive the vision, grow the leaders around them and empower staff. They do not answer every question but encourage people to search for answers to their own questions. They demonstrate wisdom by always asking meaningful questions. Level 5 leaders don’t tell people what to do; they listen to what people have to say.

Five, level 5 leaders are, for the most part, expression rather than instrumental leaders. Instrumental leaders are motivated by results. They place less emphasis on collaboration and building team consensus and more emphasis on directing staff to accomplish specific tasks with little desire for their feedback. Expressive leaders are motivated by relationships. For these leaders, it is all about getting an entire group working harmoniously together in pursuit of a mutual goal and everyone knowing how they belong. Level 5 leaders drive culture through relationships.

Six, level 5 leaders know that they never arrive. Culture is not a destination but a yellow brick road whereby each brick is put in place one at a time. These leaders enjoy culture as a journey manoeuvring the economic elements, generational divides and innovation races. Level 5 leaders never stop searching for excellence in themselves, their people or their culture.

Level 5 leaders drive culture by never trying to stop “qualifying for the job”.

Warmly, Bea

Great Read

The 5 Levels of Leadership
by John Maxwell
Published by Grand Central Publishing 10/4/2011

One of the most established authorities on leadership writing today, John C. Maxwell speaks to over 350,000 people each year and his most popular topic is THE 5 LEVELS OF LEADERSHIP, which he now shares with readers.

The five levels include:
1. Position - People follow because they have to.
2. Permission - People follow because want to.
3. Production - People follow because of what you have done for the organization.
4. People Development - People follow because of what you have done for them personally.
5. Pinnacle - People follow because of who you are and what you represent.

Through in-depth explanations and examples, Maxwell will describe each stage and show readers how they can move to the next level to become more influential, respected, and successful leaders.

Great Organization

YWCA

As part of the oldest and largest women’s social service organization in Canada, the YWCA Edmonton has been serving the capital region for over 100 years.

We were founded on the belief that women must take a leadership role in shaping society’s direction in order to achieve equity and equality for all women.

We are:
A strong voice for women’s issues
Committed to empowering female leaders of tomorrow
Determined to end violence against women

Through leadership, advocacy and support for women and their families, YWCA Edmonton looks to create strong, inclusive communities that value women’s perspectives.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

April 2013

Building High Reliability

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Sunday, March 24, 2013 - Culture with Courage Does Not Happen in the Office

Greetings

I admire companies that try to reinvent themselves. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to come clean on what is not working. With that said, it takes greater courage to change what needs to be changed. In 2012, CN was recognized as one of Canada’s most admired corporate cultures. This was a far cry from the entitlement culture they lived a few years back. CN and their CEO Claude Mongeau are prime examples of what can happen when building a culture outside of the C - suite offices.

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Culture with Courage Does Not Happen in the Office

CN has been labelled by many as one of the most successful corporate culture transformations in business today. In the past decade, the company has gone from a culture of entitlement to a culture of accountability. How?

Leadership got out of the office to lead
In the time Claude Mongeau was preparing to become CEO, he spent almost a year visiting CN sites and meeting with employees. His strategy was to listen, be curious, find out what was working and what was not. He also spent a lot time talking about the business and focusing on the passion of being in the railroad industry.
Leadership began building confidence through accountability
Mongeau also leveraged part of the “high reliability” formula for building “high reliability” cultures: accountability. He knew accountability would lead to success and success breeds confidence.

These two actions led to a Canadian transformation success story that has not gone unnoticed in the business world. If you think about it, the strategy seems quite simple. Get out of the office and build confidence. Well, we all know it can’t be that simple and change did not come easy for CN. Mongeau comments ” ... you just can’t go from A to D in one fell swoop. You have to build momentum, you have to change people, you have to taste success and you have to hone in on your recipes for how you come together individually and as a team to drive performance.” National post February 2013

The lessons here are obvious. We know building a successful business culture is not easy, therefore, keep it as simple as possible and just get out of the office to lead.

Warmly, Bea

Great Read

GPS Your Best Life
by Charmaine Hammond, Debra Kasowski
Published August 15, 2012 by Bettie Youngs Book Publishers

Obstacles and roadblocks can detour us on the way to success, or even prevent us from getting there at all. GPS Your Best Life helps you determine exactly where you are now, and through practical strategies and assessments, helps you clarify what you want in your personal and career life. GPS Your Best Life will help you map your destination and put you on the road to personal fulfillment, happiness and success.

Legacy Event

I sit on the Winnifred Stewart Association Board and this year is Winnifred's 60th anniversary.

A few facts about this amazing lady:

Motivated by a desire to help her son, Parker Stewart, who was born with severe disabilities, Dr. Winnifred Stewart devoted 20 years to experimental research work into new teaching methods.

In 1954, Dr. Stewart was the first woman to address the Alberta Legislature from the floor of the House. This resulted in the first recognition from the government in Canada to provide financial aid to schools for mentally handicapped children. She was also presented with the Alberta Order of Excellence.

This year we are celebrating 60 years through many events, including a Gala. The proceeds of this Gala will go towards the creation of a Center of Excellence for our individuals with Alzheimer's and chronic dementia, including the launch of the first "GentleCare" facility in Edmonton. My dad had dementia and I wish GentleCare was around during his time.

The Link to the Gala invitation is below.

Inspiring Dreams Gala

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely, Bea

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

March 2013

Building High Reliability

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Tuesday, February 12, 2013 - Leadership Must Own Engagement

Greetings:

I have had an interesting month chatting with a few well respected leaders about the role of leadership. The topics of employee retention and engagement kept coming up in the discussions (as it should). I found myself becoming passionate about why leaders must own the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for both these areas.

To unsubscribe from BMG’s mailing list, click on the “unsubscribe” tab below.

Leadership Must Own Engagement
Owning the “New Normal”

The current economic climate for business and organizations is changing at a rapid rate. Business challenges are turning out to be more complex as consumer demands become more sophisticated. The expectation for quality, safety, innovation as well as the desire for long term relationships has always been a constant. What has changed is a higher expectation of the results. So, how do business leaders manage this challenge? Certainly not by only focusing on previously held business priorities such as cost management and growing markets. There is a new normal.

CIPD chief executive, Peter Cheese stated in the 2013 HR Outlook- A Leader's Perspective that: “This is a time of real opportunity for HR. In what is often called the ‘current economic climate’, but would more accurately be called ‘the new normal’, businesses face many conflicting priorities, such as reducing costs at the same time as trying to increase employee engagement. This puts HR issues at the heart of the business agenda now more than ever”.

I agree the “new normal” undeniably has many conflicting priorities for business leaders. The real issue is the misplaced perception that employee engagement and retention is owned by HR. In many organizations engagement and retention KPIs reside with HR. Why is that? The end result of successful employee engagement yields a positive emotional connection with the work a person does in the workplace. This leads to increased loyalty and a strong desire to contribute to company success. The only way this can happen is through committed leadership.

The role of a leader is to serve the very people that make things happen. Leaders:

1. Provide a clear purpose;
2. Consistently talk about what matters;
3. Consistently show how the work matters; and
4. Ensures people are set up for success, are valued, cared about and know where they belong.

The role of HR with respect to engagement and retention is important but it may be more important to support leadership success rather than employee success. HR strategy can help keep leadership on track and focused but the inspiration and accountability comes from the top. Time and time again experience demonstrates engagement is the number one driver of performance and profitably.

An owner of a successful Alberta company shared this communication with me. It was from one of his employees. True story.

I would like to tell you how much I appreciate your time and also the time you have let me work for you. For the most part it has been what I consider the perfect company to work for and I have enjoyed growing as a better person for it. I find it hard to find words to express how much I care for the {Company}. I love working {here}. and ......, it is nice to see all the employees love working {here too}. You have built not only a company, but a company that has become like a family who can achieve anything.

Money can’t buy that. HR can’t design that. However, leadership can absolutely grow that!

Warmly, Bea

Legacy Event

In 2013 the Winnifred Stewart Association will be celebrating our 60th Anniversary of supporting individuals with developmental disabilities.

Our major event for this celebration will be a Gala Evening on April 12, 2013 at The Westin Hotel. The proceeds of this event will go towards the creation of a Center of Excellence for our individuals with Alzheimer’s and chronic dementia. With recent advances in medicine the life expectancy of people with developmental disabilities like Down Syndrome has increased significantly, but with that we are seeing a significantly higher incidence of Alzheimer’s in these individuals. There is a very real need for facilities to care for these folks. Our intention is to launch the first “GentleCare” facility in Edmonton.

The program for the evening will be produced by Don Metz, Aquila Productions and hosted by Danny Hooper. It will be a fast-paced evening of entertainment, interaction and fun.

Below please find the link to the invitation - 60th Anniversary Inspiring Dreams Gala. I hope that you will be able to attend.

Inspiring Dreams Gala

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely, Bea

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

February 2013

Building High Reliability

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Sunday, January 13, 2013 - Great Culture Requires Extreme Leadership

Happy New Year!

It is going to be a great year for many reasons, and this year I’m putting what I do into perspective. My goal has always been to make a difference in this world. I was touched the other day when I overheard my son explain to someone what I do for a living. He told his friend that I’m making the world better, one company at a time. My perspective cannot be any clearer than that. It is how I think every day from the moment I get up in the morning, to the end of the day when I give gratitude for what I get to do.

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Culture Requires Extreme Leadership

The beginning of the New Year is all about something 'new': out with the old, in with the new; new resolutions, new outlook, new waist line, new hopes and new dreams. My annual tradition is to look back on the past year and reflect on the important things I’ve learned so I can leverage my experience with all my 'new'.

Last year was a breakthrough year in how I look at culture. We all know solid corporate culture is driven by good leadership. However, I’ve realized that good leadership is not enough. In my experience, the culture that exudes performance, nurtures momentum and grows with grace and gratitude are the cultures that are undeniably being led by extreme leadership practices. Growing your business culture is complex and takes extreme measures to ensure results. So, what is extreme leadership? Good question. In my humble opinion, extreme leadership is a fine balance between countless things with one common denominator - courage.

Courage is not worrying about what could go wrong. Instead, extreme leaders have to have faith in what can go right. Too many leaders want to be indestructible. They want the plans, implementations and executions to be perfect. Risk is a dirty word. The irony is, risk is part of nature. In fact, it is the most elegant part of nature. Without risk there is little reward. When lions hunt big game, it is more of a risk than hunting little animals. The risk of being crushed, pierced through the heart by antlers or kicked to death is higher. Reward means enough meat for the pride and enough protein for the young to grow strong. If lions played it safe, hunting for small game would result in many hunts, high expressions of energy, lots of work and potentially, not enough meat to feed the pride.

From an early age, we are taught to fear failure. Extreme leaders unconditionally know in their hearts that if you let fear win, it will probably keep you from doing something great. Extreme leaders also know that if they do fail, the journey will teach something new, help them grow as human beings and encourage them to try something different.

I marvel at the risk the Chanel company recently made asking Brad Pitt to be the first male spokesperson for their women’s Chanel No. 5 fragrance. Channel No.5 was launched by legendary French designer Coco Chanel in 1921. Admittedly, many found it strange for a man to promote a female fragrance. The campaign has fueled parodies on Saturday Night Live and across the Internet. The jury is still out on the success or failure of the risk, but all I can say is it took company courage to act on that kind of risk and it has not gone unnoticed.

So make taking a risk your ‘new’ and become an extreme leader.

All the best for 2013.

Bea

Great Read

The Advantage:Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business
Author: Patrick Lencioni
Published by: Jossey-Bass (March 1, 2012)

Lencioni makes an overwhelming case that organizational health will surpass all other disciplines in business as the greatest opportunity for improvement and competitive advantage. Drawing on his extensive consulting experience and reaffirming many of the themes cultivated in his other best-selling books, Pat reveals the four actionable steps to achieving long-term, sustainable success.

Legacy Event

Winnifred Stewart Association Inspiring Dreams Gala

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

January 2013

Building High Reliability

Bea Bohm-Meyer has over 20 years experience facilitating individual and corporate growth. An expert in her field, Bea is a corporate culture design expert.

She works with executives and business owner’s nationwide building highly productive and motivated teams. Her ability to help companies design a strong management infrastructure and performance culture, by getting people moving in the same direction, provides a tremendous competitive advantage. Bea strongly believes “when a company focuses on its culture, performance becomes second nature”.

She has been responsible for leading countrywide transformation projects which included: driving cultural change and building high reliability performance.

Bea has also had the privilege to study and work with leaders from high reliability industries such as aviation and NASA to understand how to build high reliability into a cultural framework.

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Thursday, November 29, 2012 - 16 Characteristics of Greatness

Greetings

Earlier this month, I was speaking to a large accounting firm at the Sport Hall of Fame in Vancouver. In a sidebar discussion with one of the partners, the topic of high performance came up. We chatted about what high performance competencies look like. We also questioned if there is a difference in attitude between high performance in sports and high performance in business.

When I got back to Edmonton, there was an email waiting for me from the partner of the firm. He introduced me to the 16 Characteristics of Greatness by Don Yaeger, an author of more than a dozen books, four of which became instant New York Times best-sellers.

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Characteristics of Greatness

Don Yaeger Bio
Don Yaeger has conducted interviews with some of the greatest athletes of our time - Michael Jordan, Mia Hamm, Emmitt Smith, Serena Williams, Jimmy Connors and countless others. He has lived with Walter Payton, writing the NFL legend's autobiography as Payton courageously battled cancer, has walked into Afghanistan with the mujahadeen as they fought the Soviets, chronicled the high-profile Duke Lacrosse scandal, and has interviewed the President of the United States in the Oval Office.

Don recognized from some of the greatest winners in sports that, not a single one requires you to be able to touch your toes!

My husband has a business that helps develop high performance athletes. We often passionately discuss if there is a difference between the characteristics of high performing business leaders and top athletes.

I’ve noted Don Yaeger’s 16 characteristics below. You be the judge.

16 Characteristics of Greatness by Don Yaeger

How They Think

1. It’s Personal
They hate to lose more than they love to win. People that aspire to greatness know that defeat just isn’t an option.

2. Rubbing Elbows
They understand the value of association. I always say that we become the people that surround us. Those of us who are aspiring to greatness, it is our job to rub elbows with the right people and to learn what makes them successful and what keeps them going. In turn, it is up to them to help us better ourselves. And if you can’t change the people around you, then choose different people to be around. Think about it.

3. Believe
They have faith in a higher power. It is proven that a strong spiritual commitment, and a strong belief in faith are linked to a positive outcome. In our current economic state, always remember the power of a positive mind-set and the importance of belief in beating the impossible.

4. Contagious Enthusiasm
They are positive thinkers… They are enthusiastic… and that enthusiasm rubs off. When you’re trying to work through your challenge-professional or personal – do so with the belief that the best is yet to come. Stay positive.

How They Prepare

5. Hope For the Best, But…
They prepare for all possibilities before they step on the field. I am an eternal optimist. But I am also a realist. When I enter into any situation, I am excited about the possibilities it may bring. But I also know that there are a lot of variables beyond my control. So I contingency-plan.

6. What Off-Season?
They are always working towards the next game… The goal is what’s ahead, and there’s always something ahead. If you visualize where you want to be and work backwards from there, you can always be moving the ball forward.

7. Visualize Victory
They see victory before the game begins. Positive visualization is a proven ingredient of a successful outcome.

8. Inner Fire
They use adversity as fuel. One thing in life is certain… none of us gets through without adversity. What matters is that we find the strength to work through it. When we are knocked down, it may take hours, days, weeks, or months, but we need to get back up. For me, I’m at the point where challenging situations invigorate me. I’m mentally tough enough to embrace the adversity heading my way, overcome it, and learn from it.

How They Work

9. Ice In Their Veins
They are risk-takers and don’t fear making a mistake. Failure is one of our greatest teachers. I’m amazed at how much risk-tolerance I have acquired. But it’s the one component that enables me to keep growing. If I stopped to think about how much I have on the line, I would be paralyzed.

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career,” NBA legend Michael Jordan, who was known for his late-game heroics, in addition to six national titles, once said. “I’ve lost almost 300 games – 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.”

10. When All Else Fails
They know how – and when – to adjust their game plan. Flexibility and adaptability is essential to survival. I wrote a previous column on this exact topic… the ability to shift when everything around you is shifting too.

11. Ultimate Teammate
They will assume whatever role is necessary for the team to win. Individual accomplishments are important, but the sum is always greater in value than the individual parts. How much do you step up to help those around you? When others around you thrive, you thrive as well.

12. Not Just About the Benjamins
They don’t play just for the money. It’s never about the money. And if it is, it’s about the wrong thing. The money will come if you follow your passion… if you become a part of something bigger than yourself. As a business owner, I view our profits as a catalyst to build a greater organization.

How They Live

13. Do Unto Others
They know character is defined by how they treat those who cannot help them. One of the greatest sources of satisfaction is helping others, from a truly altruistic standpoint. We all have something to give… our time, our experiences and our compassion.

14. When No One Is Watching
They are comfortable in the mirror… they live their life with integrity. I always tell my kids… “What matters is not what you do when everyone is watching. What matters is what you do when no one is watching.” Your ultimate accountability has to be to yourself.

15. When Everyone Is Watching
They embrace the idea of being a role model. As leaders, we have an obligation to promote positive leadership, and demonstrate the positive influence we can have on others. Our actions shape those coming behind us.

16. Records Are Made to Be Broken
They know their legacy isn’t what they did on the field. They are well-rounded. A legacy isn’t what you took from this world. A legacy is what you leave behind.

Bea

Great Read

16 Characteristics of Greatness
Author: Don Yaeger
Published by: Center Street; First Edition edition (October 24, 2011)

GREATNESS is a motivational book whose target audience is found in business and self-help. It is a life book, aimed at inspiring others to achieve their personal and professional best. Opening with an in-depth discussion of the nature of Greatness-what it is, what it is not, and why it is worth pursing-each subsequent chapter of the book consists of a detailed story illustrating one aspect of Greatness with examples from the sports greats that Don has interviewed over the years. This will be followed by a discussion and other related examples. There are also practical tips and plans for assisting the reader in implementing new habits, routines, practices, and philosophies of Greatness into his or her daily life. As each characteristic is outlined, the reader is challenged to look for areas in his or her professional and personal lives that can be improved by embracing these lessons.

As Don often says during his speeches, "Though these characteristics are culled from some of the greatest winners in sports, not a single one requires you to be able to touch your toes! These iconic figures in sports have provided a classroom for us to learn about their pursuit of Greatness. You don't have to be good at sports - heck, you don't even have to like sports - to benefit from their lessons."

It is the strong belief of those who Don has talked to over the years that greatness is available to all of us. Not in the same way or on the same field, mind you. But we all have the capacity to achieve greatness if we'll give the same dedication to these characteristics as do the winners presented and interviewed in GREATNESS.

Great Organization

Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world. Many of the funds help women start their own businesses. Research and experience has demonstrated successful women contribute to building strong communities.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

November 2012

Building High Reliability

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Sunday, October 21, 2012 - Culture is Not a One Man Show

Greetings

John Maxwell wrote that the Law of Significance is when you realize one is too small a number to achieve greatness. As I look back on my life, I realized every dream that has come true was only possible because of the people that helped me make it happen. I am significant because of the people I surround myself with.

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Culture is Not a One Man Show

I sat on my couch last night enjoying my favorite Meyer Family Chardonnay and reflected on how I got to be so lucky. My dreams are coming true and now I can design new ones. I have grown a business that I am passionate about, work with clients that I adore, live a purpose I am proud of, have a family that rocks my world every day and I’m surrounded with friends that push me to have fun and be better, then better and then even better. The bottom line is, I feel so much love in my life. Yes, indeed how lucky I am...............Not.

After coming out of my delusion, reality set in. I am a result of my environment. I didn’t get here alone. All of those people mentioned above put me here. The scariest part is to consider what my life would look like without all these people; these angels of wisdom, providing me with unconditional support and at times, even mercy. Why did they support me? Somehow they believed in me and somehow they saw my potential.

I believe the same can be said for building corporate culture. You just can’t do it alone. The more people moving in the same direction, the more energy and momentum a company will have. Success is all about momentum!!!!!

The goal is getting your team to believe in “the potential”. That is when the magic happens. Company significance is founded on the people believing in what is possible. If you can get there, then you are no longer alone and the magic of momentum begins to build.

Effective cultures are maintained by the majority, not managed by the minority. In order for that to happen, everyone has to BELIEVE.

Bea

Great Read

The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork
Author: John Maxwell
Published by: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2001

In business, ministry, sports, and families teamwork is essential.The old autocratic approach simply doesn't work. And after thirty-plus years of leadership experience and building successful organizations, Maxwell knows that the only way to win - and win big - is by developing great teams.

In his new book, Maxwell illustrates the laws of teamwork at work in every area of life, and he teaches the principles that will enable you and your team to succeed. Drawing from history, headlines, and his own life, each law has been proven and each law, when followed, will lead you closer to your goals.

Teamwork is necessary, and knowing how to build effective teams will benefit every area of your life.

Great Organization

YWCA Edmonton is girl empowerment, violence prevention, family health, recreation, education & women’s leadership.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

October 2012

Building High Reliability

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Monday, September 10, 2012 - CULTURE must INSPIRE people to MOVE IN THE SAME DIRECTION

Greetings Everyone

Some leaders struggle with the subject of business culture because it is difficult to define. Yet, the reality is, any business plan, strategy or mission can fail if your people are not moving in the same direction. Perhaps that is the simplest way to understand culture, by asking the question; are all your people moving in the same direction?

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CULTURE must INSPIRE people to MOVE IN THE SAME DIRECTION

Whether heading in the right direction or the wrong direction, if everyone is moving the same way it will define your culture. It is the shared beliefs and attitudes that get people moving. So how do you get small or large groups to move in the right direction?

The answer is that you don't. You can’t make people behave in certain ways but you can focus on two fundamental strategies to inspire the right collective behaviour - a clear Vision Strategy and a clear Leadership Strategy.

1. Clear Vision

To have a winning culture you must clearly communicate your vision of what a winning culture looks like. More specifically, what are the most critical beliefs that will characterize the culture you want to live? For example, Steve Jobs wanted innovation to guide everything Apple did and stood for in the world. This ambitious vision was supported by identifying what Apple employees needed to do to make innovation successful. For instance, employees were given time to explore their own ideas and bring their own creativity to the table.

2. Clear Leadership

Culture does not just happen once it is written in a business plan. Culture must be driven by the top. Leaders can inspire behaviours in several ways such as:

a. Defining what is in it for the team;
b. Showing how the culture can advance the business;
c. Integrate the culture into Operations and Human Resource procedures;
d. Walk the talk everyday and model the culture through actions not just words;
e. Evaluate the culture through individual and team performance reviews; and
f. Celebrate culture successes.

Former General Electric’s (GE) CEO Jack Welch publicly fired two GE leaders for not demonstrating the new behaviours he defined for the company, despite having achieved exceptional financial results. Today, it is not just about financial success; business is about Brand, Quality and putting people first. We all know, in the end, doing the right thing is good for business. Richard Branson, CEO of the Virgin Group, believes if you take care of your people, your people will take care of the business.

Shaping a corporate culture is one of the most difficult challenges for a leader. It takes commitment, discipline and hard work. Most importantly, it takes a clear vision of what that culture is and how you want to lead it.

Great Event -DEXIO LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE 2012 – Edmonton Alberta

Leadership, Motivation and Education

Dexio describes itself as "an organization that believes that leadership is striving toward excellence."

"As part of our mission to 'Develop Excellence In Others', we have brought together some of the greatest thought leaders in the world of leadership and personal development."

Amongst the leaders present will be Dr. John C Maxwell who is rated the #1 Leadership Guru in the world for 2012.

Also present will be Alvin Law, who was born with no arms due to the drug Thalidomide. Check out an excerpt from his inspirational and humorous motivational speech here!

The Dexio Leadership conference will be held on September 15, 2012 at the Shaw Conference Centre. You can get your tickets at the reduced rate of $169.00 by purchasing them through Catherine Vu, President of Pro-Active IT Solutions and my colleague, (who will be attending). Just click here to purchase your tickets to be inspired, challenged and encouraged!

Bea

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

September 2012

Building High Reliability

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Sunday, July 22, 2012 - The 11 Leadership Secrets Youve Never Heard About

Greetings Everyone

Well summer is upon us in full force. It may be the effects of the blazing summer sun or lazy rain, but I’ve been struggling to put some thoughts together on how self-leading can serve a greater purpose. Almost as if I put in an order, Forbes printed The 11 Leadership Secrets You’ve Never Heard About. I’ve reprinted it below in the hope that it will provide some food for thought, perhaps over a glass of wine.

Keep on enjoying the summer.

Bea

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The 11 Leadership Secrets You've Never Heard About
Written by: August Turak 7/17/2012
Published in: Forbes Magazine

The old distinctions between leaders and followers are gone. Great followers follow by leading. Here’s 11 ways to make sure you do just that.

In 1982 I left a great job at MTV: Music Television for what is now the A&E Network for one reason: to work for Jim Collins. A highly successful executive, Collins poured wisdom into my head by the bucket while keeping me in stitches with his big-hearted Irish sense of humor. One day he said:

“Remember Augie, everybody got a boss. The vice president reports to the president and the president reports to the CEO. The CEO reports to the chairman of the board and the chairman reports to his wife. All God’s children got a boss. If you want to be a great leader you must also be a great follower.”

* * *

According to Louis Mobley, my mentor and the director of the IBM Executive School, Albert Einstein did far more than reinvent physics. Human beings are no longer just passive cogs in Newton’s mechanistic machine inexorably driven by the iron wheel of cause and effect. Instead we are all conscious agents, thinking for ourselves, just as capable of causing change as being driven by it. Einstein’s universe is a fluid place of feedback loops where cause and effect are interchangeable and often indistinguishable. Does the media lead public opinion or merely reflect it? Do parents produce children or children produce parents? Are consumers hapless victims of marketing or are marketing folks just hapless victims of a fickle consumer?

For leadership, Einstein’s revolution means that the old, neat distinction between leaders and followers no longer exists. Those bright lines between kings and subjects, nobles and serfs, bosses and “workers” are gone. We often switch between leader and follower many times in a single day, and success depends just as much on being a great follower as it does on being a great leader.

Great followers follow by leading and here are 11 ways to do just that.

1) Great Followers Seize the Initiative: The days of leaders saying “Jump!” and subordinates asking “How high?” are over. Today’s leader desperately needs followers that bring fresh ideas not passive worker bees waiting to be told what to do. Great followers say, “This is what I think we should do.” not “What do you want me to do?”

2) Great Followers Create their Own Job: Collins taught me a model for every new job I took. Moving quickly I’d identify a quantifiable goal that I could achieve in a reasonably short amount of time. I would then write up a plan for achieving that goal along with a weekly reporting process. But most importantly, I always presented my plan before my boss asked for it. In this way I demonstrated that I could lead myself. The side benefit of creating my own job was getting the autonomy that turns work into fun.

3) Great Followers are Coachable: One time Collins shared a “secret” with me. Rather than lug around a notebook, he folded a sheet of paper into thirds and put it into the breast pocket of his jacket for notes. I faithfully imitated him, but the first thing I did after leaving the company was stop carrying that damn sheet of paper. It may seem that I was just playing the phony to ingratiate myself, but I had a nobler objective. I wanted to demonstrate to Collins that I was coachable. I used a little thing to signal that I was coachable on the big ones.

4) Great Followers Anticipate: One of the most humorous bits from the TV series M*A*S*H is Cpl. “Radar” O’Reilly consistently anticipating Col. Blake and later Col. Potter. They can barely open their mouths before Radar finishes their sentence by assuring them that whatever they are looking for is already done. Like Radar, great followers stay a step ahead of their boss by proactively asking: “If I were my boss what would I want next?” My 23- year -old sales assistant at MTV, Sheri Gottlieb was so good that within weeks 90% of the work that hit my in-box went straight to my out-box with only “Sheri, please handle” for instruction. Soon and without being asked, like Radar, she was intercepting most of my office work before it even hit my desk. Sheri, unsurprisingly, quickly rose from “lowly secretary” to vice president.

5) Great Followers are Great Communicators: If your boss ever has to ask for a status report, you are failing as a follower. Great leaders are great worriers. Great followers preempt worry by proactively communicating in writing. If you do not communicate your boss will naturally worry that you are hiding bad news. Besides, unbidden information is treated far more credibly than information demanded. Poor communicators consistently find themselves on the defensive and perpetually wondering why.

6) Great Followers are Goal Driven: Leaders are busy. The last thing they want to do is “supervise.” Great followers reason backwards: they use future goals to prioritize today’s “activity.” Poor followers reason forward: They react to their in-box and email in the forlorn hope that just staying busy will magically produce results somewhere “down the road.” Your boss is not paying you to “stay busy” or even to “work hard.” He is paying you to strategically deliver on clearly defined goals that materially impact the mission. This is true no matter where you are on the corporate ladder as my assistant Sheri repeatedly demonstrated.

7) Great Followers Show Don’t Tell: I am coaching a young MBA student. At our first meeting I began groping for a quote, and this young man quietly pulled out a neatly tabbed binder with everything I had ever written and quickly pulled out the quote. His preparation demonstrated seriousness far more convincingly than an impassioned speech ever could. I am now investing far more in him. Human beings are wired to value action and discount verbiage, use this trait to your advantage.

8) Great Followers Earn Trust: My number one goal upon taking a new job was getting my boss to relax. The sooner I earned his trust, the quicker he would spend his most valuable asset, time, worrying about something other than me. Louis Mobley said trust relies on promise and fulfillment. People who keep promises can be trusted. Those who don’t cannot. Great followers keep promises. It is critical, especially early in your relationship with your boss, that you deliver on every commitment no matter how trivial.

9) Great Followers Offer Solutions: Any damn fool can turn his problems into problems for his boss. Great followers solve problems. If they cannot they always offer their boss solutions along with the problem.

10) Great Followers are Compassionate: Often referred to as “managing your boss,” great followers are sympathetic to the enormous pressure that leaders must endure. For example, leaders may wait too long to make a change or fill a position. Then they spend months and many thousands of dollars recruiting while Rome burns around them. Once they fill the position they still spend sleepless nights haunted by the chance that they hired the wrong person. If they have, not only must they go through the agonizing process again, but answer to their own unsympathetic boss about their poor decision. Examples like this are the ordinary lot of leadership, and great followers not only empathize but look for ways to reassure their boss that at least one person understands his pain and can be counted on to alleviate it.

11) Great Followers are Loyal: If I could not, in clear conscience, back my boss to the hilt then it was time to change jobs or take an unpaid sabbatical. Great followers take pride in making their boss “look good.” Even if I disagreed in private, it was still my job to present a united front once the decision had been made. I never undermined my boss to curry favor with my own people or played politics at his expense. I only went over his head to let his superiors know how great he was, and I constantly looked for reasons to do just that.

As I hope you’ve noticed, many of the same traits I ascribe to great followers apply to great leaders. Great leaders not only acquire these traits as followers, but model them for their own subordinates. But most importantly their interchangeable nature makes my point: Just as the distinction between noble and serf is a thing of the past so are the distinctions between leaders and followers.

Everybody got a boss and I was fortunate to have the privilege of avidly following a number of great teachers and business leaders like Jim Collins. And my efforts to become the best follower I could possibly be paid off handsomely when I finally found myself leading my own company…

7/17/2012
August Turak
Forbes Magazine

Great Read

The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive
Author: Patrick Lencioni
Published by Jossey-Bass September 1, 2000

In this stunning follow-up to his best-selling book, The Five Temptations of a CEO, Patrick Lencioni offers up another leadership fable that's every bit as compelling and illuminating as its predecessor. This time, Lencioni's focus is on a leader's crucial role in building a healthy organization- an often overlooked but essential element of business life that is the linchpin of sustained success. Readers are treated to a story of corporate intrigue as the frustrated head of one consulting firm faces a leadership challenge so great that it threatens to topple his company, his career, and everything he holds true about leadership itself. In the story's telling, Lencioni helps his readers understand the disarming simplicity and power of creating organizational health, and reveals four key disciplines that they can follow to achieve it.

Great Causes

Ovarian Cancer

http://www.ovariancanada.org/

In memory of my sister.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

July 2012

Building High Reliability

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Sunday, June 17, 2012 - Communication and Progress are Key Motivators

Greetings Everyone

In 2010 Gallop Research estimated that only 20% of the workforce in North America is fully engaged. The same research extrapolated that it is costing corporate America $360 billion annually in staff disengagement. Many opinions ensue that this crisis is an employee performance epidemic. In reality, when you look at employee disengagement, it all comes down to corporate culture. A strong culture is designed to motivate engagement.

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Communication and Progress are Key Motivators

I have worked with many leaders on the wears and tears of employee motivation. One thing I’ve come to learn is motivation is personal. Few mass motivation campaigns and strategies are effective. We are all unique; and smart leaders recognize that. What motivates one simply does not motivate all.

In his book DRIVE, Daniel Pink identifies various motivating opportunities companies should be leveraging such as: company purpose, autonomy, creativity, mastery, communication, money, progress, recognition, feedback and strength application. Out of this extensive, but not exhaustive list, only two opportunities can potentially motivate as a mass strategy: Communication and Progress.

Communication is obvious. The more transparent the information, the stronger the trust will be. Open and regular information not only breeds security but a sense of belonging. It is practically impossible to become a great leader without being a great communicator. Great leaders design great culture through great communication strategies.

At the same time, if you want to engage your employees, you must help highlight performance progress. When employees see their performance contributes to company progress they see their work as meaningful. People want to know what they contribute and how that contribution makes a difference within the bigger corporate picture. In the grand scheme of things, most people want to be associated with success, excellence and growth. This association breeds a sense of pride.

Communication and progress are not the only answers to designing a corporate culture that motivates but it does play a big part. Both are equally important for one reason. Both contribute to creating a sense of belonging. When employees truly feel like they belong it becomes less about a job and more about making a difference.

Warmly,
Bea

Great Read

StandOut
Author: Marcus Buckingham
Published by Thomas Nelson, 2011

StandOut is a book and strengths assessment combination that uses a new research methodology to reveal your top two "strength Roles" - your areas of comparative advantage. StandOut goes beyond description to give people practical innovations that fit their strengths, and provide managers with quick insights on how to get the best from each member of their team.

Great Organizations

www.winnifredstewart.com

Winnifred Stewart Association

Since its establishment in 1953, WSA has evolved, grown, and empowered countless individuals with disabilities to discover their goals and dreams. Through exploration, experience, and sharing stories, Winnifred Stewart Association helps to facilitate meaningful relationships in order to build natural supports in an individual's chosen community. We support individuals with disabilities to realize their goals, and desires, and help to make the resources available and accessible for them to lead fulfilling lives.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

June 2012

Building High Reliability

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Monday, May 21, 2012 - Corporate Culture Should Include Giving Back

Greetings Everyone

Do you know who supports your business? Do you know why they support you? Better yet, do you know what is important to your employees and clients?

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Corporate Culture Should Include Giving Back

It's all too easy to get caught up in the business of the day and forget about the bigger picture. Strategic planning, human resources and shareholders meetings - it is all consuming almost every minute of every day. If we let it, we can eventually lose touch with reality and the very community that creates our success. One of our key priorities as business owners and entrepreneurs is to honor the community that supports our desire to succeed. I believe not only is it a privilege, but a duty to give back.

Serving the community has many meaningful benefits on so many different levels. Giving means you are helping someone or something, but it is more than that. Servicing your community builds caring relationships and bonds that grow confidence. Service makes you feel good. It helps to transcend the small self in favor of the higher self. Companies that are not focused on self serving but serving others seem to have healthier cultures, more engaged employees and reputations of integrity and trust.
As well, when you give, you strengthen a mind-set of abundance rather than a lack thereof. Have you ever heard of the saying, “When you give, you will receive back tenfold”?

More and more I see companies building meaning into their purpose by getting involved in their communities. I work with an incredible company that decided to put on an annual corporate event to support an employee and his family experiencing challenges caring for their disabled children. The company partnered with a local community organization to bring awareness and financial support to programs supporting this cause. Furthermore, the annual event became so important to everyone in the company that one of the owners decided to sit on the board of this community organization.

Caring companies create caring communities within corporate borders and beyond.
It really is that simple.

Have a wonderful month

Warmly,
Bea

Great Read

The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable
John Wiley & Sons, 2000-08-24
By Patrick M. Lencioni

The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive addresses the disciplines required to create a healthy organization.

Readers are treated to a story of corporate intrigue as Rich O'Connor, fictional CEO of technology consulting company Telegraph Partners, faces a leadership challenge so great that it threatens to topple his company, his career and everything he holds true about what makes a great leader.

Great Organizations

www.kiva.org

Kiva
Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world. Many of the funds help women start their own businesses. Research and experience has demonstrated successful women contribute to building strong communities.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

May 2012

Building High Reliability

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Sunday, March 25, 2012 - Measuring Corporate Culture

Greetings Everyone

Almost every day business leaders ask me, “What is corporate culture and can it be measured?” It’s a good question. In its very essence, culture is what drives every activity, decision and behaviour of an organization. Whether looking at staff, management or clients, the foundation of culture can be found within engagement.

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Measuring Corporate Culture

Today conscious company culture has become a priority for many businesses. In fact, it has become such a priority that I often hear culture is being used to drive corporate strategy, however this concept is not new. Ten years ago, recognized business strategist, Peter Drucker stated “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. It is a quote that offers many key learnings.

The foundation of culture is in engagement. If you can understand and measure engagement, you can use culture as a tool to improve business results. Engagement has two components: Emotional and Intellectual.

Emotional engagement provides the trust factor in any relationship. For the relationship to stay strong three things have to happen:

1. Your team and clients must have a high degree of trust in what you do;
2. There needs to be a sense of belonging, connection and contribution from everyone on the team; and
3. Leadership must be committed to the emotional life of the business.

Ideally, emotional engagement defines the true values of the company.

Intellectual engagement provides the road map, skill set and systems to support business results. This is the actual infrastructure that allows performance to grow. To ensure success in this area, a clear mission and vision must be understood by everyone.

If a company can measure the emotional and intellectual engagement of their team, designing and addressing cultural issues become second nature. The key is focus. A company’s competitive advantage is to keep focused on strengthening the corporate culture.

Culture is not a project rather; it is a standard of living. You must continue to nurture it, improve it and measure it. Like anything, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”.

Bea

Great Read

Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor
Authors: Warren Bennis, Daniel Goleman, James O'Toole
Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated June 2008

In Transparency, the authors a powerhouse trio in the field of leadership look at what conspires against "a culture of candor" in organizations to create disastrous results, and suggest ways that leaders can achieve healthy and honest openness. They explore the lightning-rod concept of "transparency" which has fast become the buzzword not only in business and corporate settings but in government and the social sector as well.

Together Bennis, Goleman, and O'Toole explore why the containment of truth is the dearest held value of far too many organizations and suggest practical ways that organizations, their leaders, their members, and their boards can achieve openness. After years of dedicating themselves to research and theory, at first separately, and now jointly, these three leadership giants reveal the multifaceted importance of candor and show what promotes transparency and what hinders it. They describe how leaders often stymie the flow of information and the structural impediments that keep information from getting where it needs to go. This vital resource is written for any organization business, government, and nonprofit that must achieve a culture of candor, truth, and transparency.

Great Organizations

YMCA

http://www.edmonton.ymca.ca/

The YMCA is a charity that provides health, education and social services. It contributes to the mix of public, private, and charitable programs and facilities available to Canadians. As well, the YMCA has always been there to catch people who "fall between the cracks" of public systems and the marketplace.

YMCA programs are responses to community needs. That is why a YMCA can look very different from community to community, country to country, and generation to generation. As needs change, so does the YMCA's program offerings.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

March 2012

Building High Reliability

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - Culture = Cash

Greetings Everyone

I received my newsletter from RESULTS.com this month; a read I always look forward to getting. RESULTS.com is a company after my own heart. Their focus is to help companies “build a culture of execution and put in place the best practice processes and disciplines of high performing businesses". You can check them out at http://ca.results.com/.

With their generous permission, I am reprinting an article from one of their colleagues, John Spence, thought leader and business author of a great book called Awesomely Simple.

Enjoy!!

Bea

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Culture = Cash
Printed February 23, 2012 by Results.com

"In more than 18 years working with companies around the world, I have come to realize the incredible importance of having a strong organizational culture, as it is truly one of the only sustainable competitive differentiators available to many businesses today.

Your competitors can copy your products, they can copy your distribution, they can reverse engineer your technology, they can copy and beat your prices… but one of the very few things that can be a defendable competitive advantage is having a unique, strong and thriving organizational culture.

Interestingly though, what employees look for in a great corporate culture is often times quite different from what management wants in an effective culture, and to be successful, it is critical to address both sides of the equation.

What management wants from their organizational culture

Most business owners tell me that what they look for in an organizational culture is a high level of accountability, creativity, innovation and disciplined execution. I think it is best summed up by several of my clients who have asked me to help them build more "ownership mentality" within their people. In other words, they want employees to come in every day and look for ways to grow the business, save money, serve customers, and treat the business as if it were their own.

What employees want from their organizational culture

From the employee’s standpoint they are typically looking for an organization that is enjoyable to work for, where they get to work on interesting projects, with interesting people, get lots of support and training, are empowered to do their jobs well, take pride in the organization, and feel like they are doing meaningful and important work.

The goal for the leader, then, is to find a way to merge these two sets of needs into one organizational culture that creates highly satisfied, engaged and loyal employees. Why is this so essential? Because the number one driver of highly satisfied, loyal and engaged customers is employees that are excited about where they work and the work they do.

Highly engaged employees lead directly to happier customers, which usually leads to bigger revenue and profits. How much bigger? Well, my research shows that having a very strong organizational culture of highly engaged employees can drive as much is a 189% increase in profitability.

To make it even more relevant, additional research by the Gallup organization and other respected firms, clearly shows that actively disengaged employees – employees that do not like the company they work with/for and do not like their job – can cost a company as much as 22% of the total revenues. If those numbers don’t get your attention, I don't know what will.

So it is my strong recommendation that you look at building an effective organizational culture as one of your key strategic objectives. Done well it can be a major differentiator in the marketplace and have a significant impact on profitability. Done poorly it can cost your organization as much as a quarter of total revenues. In other words: Culture = Cash."

John Spence

Great Read

Awesomely Simple
Author: John Spence
Jossey Bass September 2009

Delivered in John’s approachable and straightforward manner, Awesomely Simple reveals the six key strategies that create a foundation for achieving business excellence: Vivid Vision, Best People, Robust Communication, A Sense of Urgency, Disciplined Execution, and Extreme Customer Focus.

Filled with case studies and clear action items, Awesomely Simple includes easy-to-follow guidelines for implementing the strategies in any organization no matter its mission or size. After concisely breaking down each strategy, John gives specific examples, tips, tools, discussion questions and exercises for how to execute them successfully.

Great Organizations

Kids Up Front
The Edmonton Kids Up Front Foundation was created in 2003 to provide access to arts, sports and entertainment events for children and youth. Kids Up Front grants event tickets that would otherwise go unused to children and youth identified through Kids Up Front’s broad network of partner agencies that provide child and family services in the Edmonton Capital Region’s education, health and social service sectors. Our foundation strives to provide every kid with a ’larger than life’ experience that fosters possibilities, passions, and dreams, one ticket at a time.

Edmonton Area Website
National Website

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

February 2012

Building High Reliability

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Sunday, January 15, 2012 - We Can Do Better

Greetings Everyone

Happy 2012!! This year, I’m starting off with a simple and short message that honours everything we do. It has been pursued for centuries by nations, taught by the great Zen Masters, followed by the most recognized artists and it is the very fibre that makes up a strong leader, a successful entrepreneur and a great corporate culture; it is the pursuit of being better.

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We Can Do Better

I find it interesting that we try to keep running lists of why people achieve success: best habits, useful processes, effective goal setting, etc. I was reminded by a very wise young lady just this month that to be great is to always push harder, climb higher and strive to be better than you are today.

Last week my daughter was in the middle of her semester finals. She asked if she could be excused from some important activities to study for a Physics exam. I thought she was doing particularly well in Physics with an 84% average so I really didn’t understand her anxiety and I asked her why. Her response was, “Because I can do better.” A response so simple and elegant. It was at that instant that all the "I can do better moments” played in my mind like a film reel. I didn’t remember the actual situations as much as I remembered the feeling of doing better: the highs, the elations, the successes and the personal celebrations.

Because I can do better. Isn't that what life is all about? Without it we would not survive and grow as individuals, a society and within our own humanity.

If you look at every great leader, entrepreneur or company, I can almost guarantee that “I can do better” is at the top of their list every day. Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, NIKE, Netflix, Zynga, Epocrates and Zappos. I can go on and on. These companies were great, are great and continue to be great because they do not sit on their greatness instead, they continue to pursue “we can be better”.

I hope you start off this year with a bang and then each and every day pursue your even bigger bang. It truly is the only reason why we are all here, because we can do better.

Warmly,
Bea

Great Read

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Penguin Group (USA) 4/5/2011
By Daniel H. Pink

Forget everything you thought you knew about how to motivate people - at work, at school, at home. It's wrong. As Daniel H. Pink explains in his new and paradigm-shattering book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, the secret to high performance and satisfaction in today's world is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

Great Organizations

Big Brothers Big Sisters
The simple truth is that kids do better with positive adults in their lives. In the words of one of our Moms “The more people that care about a child, the better." Big Brothers Big Sisters is a not for profit, charitable organization that works collaboratively with other community organizations to fulfill the goal of providing a mentor relationship to every child who could benefit from the addition of a positive role model.

Through diligent recruitment, screening, training and follow up, Big Brothers Big Sisters works to match caring, positive adults with children and youth in need.

Edmonton Area Website
National Website

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

January 2012

Building High Reliability

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Monday, December 12, 2011 - Entrepreneur and Courage are Synonymous

Greetings Everyone

December is upon us and, as always, I am taking the time to reflect on the many things I’ve learned. This year is no exception. There were many incredible experiences for me in 2011, but one moment in time keeps coming back to me. It is a lesson I live by every day but never truly acknowledged. Today, I want to give it the space it deserves.

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Entrepreneur and Courage are Synonymous

In November, I was honoured to be one of 7 successful business owners to speak at Jasper Place High School. The purpose was to share our journey as entrepreneurs with grade 10 students. It was an amazing morning and I really felt blessed to be part of the powerhouse line-up of speakers. The morning began with a keynote message that has resonated with me ever since. The message was simple. Not all entrepreneurs are business owners but all entrepreneurs are courage seekers. Entrepreneurs can make something out of nothing and always look for opportunity in crisis and adversity. “How factually true” I thought as the message pierced my heart.

In 1956 my father escaped the Hungarian revolution only to come to this country with $5.00 in his pocket. He did have a secret weapon, his courage. From a Chartered Accountant in Hungary he journeyed to Canada and sought a new life of freedom, but first he would have to learn to survive. His courage led him to be open to all possibilities. Faced with an interesting opportunity, one day he decided to learn how to bake bread. My grandpa`s last words to my father before he left Hungary were “Remember, people always need to eat.” Without one penny and within a year of getting off the boat, he opened his own bakery. My favourite story was when he leased a small shop in a back alley in downtown Edmonton. He called a restaurant service provider to set up all the bakery equipment - including a stone oven to bake European bread. When he got the bill, he told the sales person he had no money but would pay a certain amount each month. Not only was he true to his word, he grew a reputation in the community that was based on his courage and integrity.

My father passed away this year but his courage was instilled and remains a very big part of me. Each day we, as entrepreneurs, make incredibly difficult decisions, take risks and make something out of nothing. Each day when the demands surface, I remember my father and his incredible courage; then I try and seek out the opportunity within every challenge that comes my way.

Thank you Dad and Merry Christmas.

Thanks to Jared Smith from Incite for your inspiring keynote that fine Jasper Place High School morning.

Merry Christmas to you all.

I wish each and every one of you courage for 2012.

Warmly,
Bea

Great Read

The Fifth Agreement
Amber-Allen Publishing 2010
By Don Miguel Ruiz

The Fifth Agreement encourages us to see the truth, to recover our authenticity, and to change the message we deliver not only to ourselves, but to everyone around us.

Great Organizations

www.kiva.org

Kiva
Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world. Many of the funds help women start their own businesses. Research and experience has demonstrated successful women contribute to building strong communities.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

December 2011

Building High Reliability

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Sunday, November 13, 2011 - A Balance in Business Polarity

Greetings Everyone

November is here and with it the change from autumn leaves to winter snow. Seasonal change is inevitable and with change comes challenge.

This month one of my clients asked, “Bea, will the challenges to our business ever end?”

It was a surprising question, especially from someone who I knew already understood the necessity of overcoming challenges when building a successful business. Yet, his question was born from the frustrations of a particularly trying week – one I am sure that we can all relate to. I looked him straight in the eye and replied, “You know better than that.”

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A Balance in Business Polarity
Success versus Challenge

If you think you can achieve success without embracing challenge, then all you will have left in the future are these bitter delusions. If you are at the helm of any organization or business, not only do you need to embrace this dichotomy, but you need to seek it out. The greatest thing that ever happened to The Coca-Cola Company was Pepsi. Apple had Microsoft. Sidney Crosby had Ovechkin. If leveraged properly, challenges can lead straight to success.

Here’s a case study on adversity to show you what I mean:

On December 28th, 1978, United Airlines flight 173 fell from the sky, killing 10 passengers and injuring 168. Why? A misinterpretation of who was accountable for the flight. The aircraft experienced a landing gear problem while on approach to runway 28R at Portland International Airport. While the pilot tried to fix the problem, the aircraft ran out of fuel circling the airport. The co-pilot saw that the fuel gauge was on empty but he assumed that it was not his place to question the pilot. This incident changed the very nature of how the aviation industry defines its teams’ roles and responsibilities. Many industries, including healthcare, have now modelled their programs and definitions after them.

Everything on this earth is meant to grow, whether it be mentally, spiritually, physically and, in the case of business, financially. As the United Airlines tragedy shows, without adversity, we would never be challenged. We would never learn from our mistakes, being pulled by those in front and pushed by those behind.

My friend John recently sent me a wonderful piece by a Dr. Demartini. In it, he reflects on the positive and negative polarities in living, working and loving. To truly experience life, he believes you cannot have one polarity without the other. He writes:

Instead of trying to run from pain and seek pleasure, why not embrace both in pursuing fulfillment of your purpose? Look back over every aspect in your life, from the smallest thing that you think you were challenged by: criticisms, illnesses, disappointments or whatever, and ask, 'How did that help me?' Don't stop until you can give thanks for all the different parts of your life, because if they are there, they are serving you.

I truly believe we must seek out and honour this polarity in our businesses, our people and our clients. It is the only way to go from, in the words of Jim Collins, “Good to Great.”

Warmly,
Bea

Great Read

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose
Grand Central Publishing 2010
By Tony Hsieh

The visionary CEO of Zappos explains how an emphasis on corporate culture can lead to unprecedented success.

Great Organizations

http://innercity.ca

Inner City High School
Inner City High School offers Edmonton’s youth at risk and others an academic and arts-based alternative to the traditional school setting. Inner City High School is an independent school accredited by Alberta Learning. The school was created at the request of youth in our drama programs and provides youth with an alternative route to a high school diploma.

Students are the heart of our school. The students' voices and opinions are responsible for the school's structure and policies. The circle is the forum where students express their opinions, and participate in the operation of the school. Each school day begins and ends with a circle. Because the school is geared to meet the needs of its students, it is critical to operations that students attend and take part in the morning and afternoon circles. To meet this requirement and to graduate from high school students are expected attend on a regular basis. This usually involves a process of nurturing, flexibility, and for some, a few tries.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perceptions, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

November 2011

Building High Reliability

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Sunday, October 30, 2011 - Intimacy is One of the Top Trends in Culture

Greetings Everyone

“The Brand is simply a lagging indicator of the culture” Tony Heish 2010
Zappos Culture Book

When it all comes down to it, everything a business does is defined by its culture. Brand, Strategy, Engagement and Client Profile are all translations of the culture that keeps people moving in the same direction. Today, one of the top strategies to support a business culture that is a basis for reliability is intimacy.

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Intimacy is One of the Top Trends in Culture

We all matter. How we believe we matter is most often what defines our success. If that is true, what energizes, directs and sustains human behaviour is, in part, the sense of belonging. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs explains in stage three of his model that “after physiological and safety needs are fulfilled; the third layer of human needs is social and involves feelings of belongingness. The need is especially strong in childhood and can over-ride the need for safety as witnessed in children who cling to abusive parents.”

Today many fortune 500 companies are using intimacy and a sense of belonging as a strategy to design a sustainable and reliable corporate culture. When companies engage employees through an intimate environment that models family like communities, the benefits of loyalty, motivation and performance seem to grow organically.

Founder of the Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson believes it is imperative that all of his companies focus on intimacy as a priority. He even designs his business model around it. Branson insists “no more than 100 people coexist in one building (lead by senior managers that are fully empowered). By giving the company a familial flavour, employees know that they are responsible for the success of the company and don’t feel like a cog in the wheel”. EBN. Benefits News.com September 1, 2011

When evaluating your corporate culture, consider asking the question, "How do you make people feel they belong?" Implementing intimacy takes courage as does any investment in a relationship. I’ve been asked many times how you begin implementing this type of strategy and my response is simple; as with any important relationship, just start with a conversation.

Have a great November.

Warmly,
Bea

Great Read

Zappos 2010 Book of Culture
Zappos IP, Inc.

As we started to grow, we asked ourselves, how can we sustain this culture? How can we remember it while simultaneously inspiring ourselves for the next year? Our answer was the culture book. It's packed with each employee's idea about our culture, as well as photos, our core values and more. We hope that it will inspire you to create a work place where everyone loves to be.
http://www.zapposinsights.com/culture-book

Great Organizations

http://kidsupfrontedmonton.com/

Kids Up Front
Since 2003, the Kids Up Front Foundation (Edmonton) has been making a difference for local kids, one ticket at a time. We've given back a total of 205, 000 event experiences valued at 4.7 million dollars to kids using tickets that otherwise would have gone unused.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perception, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling in these areas:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

November 2011

Building High Reliability

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Sunday, October 2, 2011 - Culture Drives Strategy and Execution

Greetings Everyone

I love the quote “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. It’s been around for a while and credit has been given to the Ford Motor Car war room meetings, CISCO systems and even Peter Drucker (a management guru). Last year, Kevin Warren used it in a brilliant leadership speech. Kevin Warren is the former CEO of Xerox Canada. He began his career in 1984, as a sales trainee in Washington, D.C. He held numerous sales and sales management positions only to take on increasing levels of responsibility, including Vice President of Federal Sales. In 2007, he led a $1.5 billion purchase into Xerox and amalgamated Global Imaging Systems. Shortly after the purchase, he was appointed President and CEO of Xerox Canada. Leading such a successful career, Kevin Warren must know a thing or two about culture.

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Culture Drives Strategy and Execution

It is true and I have lived it. You can have the best plan, the latest technology, and the most brilliant strategy but if you don’t have your people all moving in the same direction, strategy and execution become a challenge. That means culture will trump strategy every time.

A few years ago, I was working with a larger health region to help strengthen the Patient Safety Culture and build high reliability into Patient Care. This was a priority and leadership was clearly committed. That same year, I had the privilege to travel to Boston for work and learn from the aviation industry which is considered to have one of the highest safety culture ratings in the world. One reason being, almost everyone in the industry believes unconditionally that reporting errors, incidents and near misses are critical to eliminate and mitigate risk. The industry has supported this critical belief by ensuring appropriate training, communication, procedures and legislation were put in place.

Interestingly, upon my return, we did discover that the reporting for the health region was not nearly at the levels it should be so we set out to find out why. Our findings were clear. The culture did not communicate the importance of reporting and people felt punitive action would be the reaction to reporting errors. It was the beginning of a journey to look at the culture and redefine priorities. We had to give employees a reason to care about this. The results were simple changes that required an effective communication and educational focus:

1. First we implemented a non-punitive policy for reporting errors. If there was not intent to cause harm, there would be no punitive reaction.

2. We made root cause analysis a critical part of all error reporting. These findings demonstrated over 80% of errors reported were system errors not people errors.

3. A near miss (events that almost occurred and did not cause patient harm or an adverse event) campaign was implemented. Each month a near miss was recognized as making a major contribution to creating a Patient Safety Culture. Root cause analysis was also implemented for near misses.

4. Ongoing education programs were intensified, ensuring everyone remained current with changing Best Practice Standards.

5. An exhaustive communication strategy was executed at every level from the CEO to peer groups. Key findings and patient’s stories were continuously shared and successes were celebrated.

6. We ensured everything we did was linked to patient outcomes. Patient's stories helped us to always do better.

Lessons learned – culture does eat strategy for breakfast. You must get people moving in the same direction through strategic communication, education and, most importantly, by giving employees a reason to care.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.

Warmly,
Bea

Great Read

Organizational Culture and Leadership (The Jossey-Bass Business & Management Series)
John Wiley and Sons
By Edgar H. Schein

Regarded as one of the most influential management books of all time, this fourth and completely updated edition of Edgar Schein's Organizational Culture and Leadership focuses on today's complex business realities and draws on a wide range of contemporary research to demonstrate the crucial role of leaders in applying the principles of culture to achieve their organizational goals.

You can order it on Amazon.

Great Organizations

http://www.EmptiestoWINN.com

Empties to WINN
In the fiercely competitive field of fundraising, attracting donors demands some keen creativity. For Winnifred Stewart Association, getting people excited about the organization is the top priority. They are not just looking for a financial return. The Empties to WINN beverage container recycling program began 5 years ago with the placement of 75 collection bins in one Edmonton neighbourhood. Today, they operate throughout Edmonton and surrounding areas and have a customer base of over 5,000 households and over 600 business and retail participants.

With nearly 2,000 charities in Edmonton alone, there is a need to create something that invites people to choose Winnifred Stewart. Participants enjoy this non-cash way to contribute. They also enjoy the fact that they receive a free collection container and bags, a free service and a tax receipt. It is truly a win-win partnership.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perception, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling in these areas:

    Leadership Performance;
    Performance Management;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

September 2011

Building High Reliability

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Monday, September 19, 2011 - A Leaders Reflection

Greetings Everyone

Out of the blue, a client and dear friend sent me the quote below. Summed up it really is the golden rule: treat others like you wanted to be treated. All the great role models in my life live by this simple concept. It is the true basis for great leadership.

No civilization based upon the unjust treatment of its people has ever endured. A tyrant may force the cooperation of others for a time, but that power is never sustained. Only when people are accorded the respect they deserve do they willingly create and maintain successful organizations and societies. When you build a company or an organization based on fairness and justice for every member, you have built a power that will long endure. The best way to secure the commitment and unending cooperation of others is through the simple application of the Golden Rule. It is the most successful and long-lasting management theory ever developed. When you treat others as you would like to be treated were you in their situation, you will inspire loyalty and enthusiastic cooperation. Set high standards for yourself and others, treat them well, let them do their jobs, and they will perform miracles for you.

~Napoleon Hill~

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A Leader's Reflection

What kind of leader are you? Here is a short but powerful exercise to get you started. You don’t have to be a CEO or even in business. You just have to be sincere about learning something about yourself.

Write 4 sentences describing how you would like to be treated as a person.

Before you go on, please double check your answers and be sure you are happy with what you have written.

Now go back and put a check mark by those statements you live by 100% of the time. Put an X by those you live by less than 100% of the time. Be honest. If you do have some Xs, you need to ask yourself why. Then determine what you’re going to do about it. Commit to taking one action everyday for the next 30 days. The action must directly help you be the leader you want to be. Re-evaluate after 30 days. The key is to keep learning and keep growing.

Leaders can’t expect from others what they don’t expect from themselves. To lead you have to put people first.

Lead on everyone!

Warmly,
Bea

Great Organizations

http://theinsideride.com/tour/

The National Inside Ride Tour
Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation presents the Inside Ride, Canada's first indoor cycling challenge and fundraising event dedicated to raising monies in support of families and children with cancer. Support will be provided where the needs are greatest, including funding of oncology camps, community support programmes, research scholarships and other areas which contribute to inspiring hope and improving prognoses for children and their families impacted by cancer.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perception, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling in these areas:

    Leadership Performance;
    People Management Success;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

September 2011

Building High Reliability

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Monday, September 5, 2011 - Journey to Happiness

Greetings Everyone

I started to write about how to design a corporate culture of happiness and kept thinking this subject is such a personal journey. Happiness can definitely be translated to business culture but begins with the basics. Recently happiness has become top of mind in business, politics, community and even family. The science of happiness, the art of happiness, the formula for happiness; it is all the same. North American society is finally realizing that being happy offers better personal and professional outcomes.

Happy Community = Healthier Community
Happy Employees = Stronger Performance
Happy People = Meaningful Lives
Happy Students = Better Grades
Happy Wife = Happy Life (Just had to add this one in)

Last year the provincial government hired an economist to measure the health of Alberta by measuring happiness levels of our population. Why has it taken us so long to figure out how to use this sustainable benefit? Designing happiness should be in every strategic plan, community roadmap, educational platform and family infrastructure.

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Journey to Happiness

North Americans, for the most part, have made attaining happiness as complex as trying to understand quantum physics. Through trial and error these past few years I’ve simplified my journey to happiness by committing to three daily habits. It’s not rocket science. It’s simply a choice.

Habit # 1
Focus On What is Important. Let Go of the Rest.

With everything I do, I focus on what matters, what will have the biggest impact and make the biggest difference. Sometimes that means delegating and empowering my team so I can get home to help with homework and vice versa. The point is to ensure I don’t work on things that make me feel busy but achieve results that have little impact.

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak." Hans Hofmann

Habit #2
Be Kind and Compassionate.

We are all different. We need to honour that in good times and bad. If we seek to understand rather than judge we might learn a thing or two and even make a new friend. Understanding and connecting to people is essential to happiness and how we value ourselves and others. Science has also shown us that compassion is important to our physical, mental and spiritual health. I heard someone share a great quote the other day, I think came from Franklin D Roosevelt. It goes something like “I don’t like him so I should really get to know him”. Such a simple thought like that can change the world.

Habit #3
Be Grateful.

My day starts and ends with thanks. There are days when I list everything and there are days when I just watch the sunrise and feel thankful. However it happens for me, I am reminded daily how lucky I am to be alive and share my life with wonderful family and friends. I hope this keeps me humble, honest and authentic.

I leave you with an excerpt from a Washington Post article sharing a Gallup 2010 study on well being and happiness.
"Pulling in the big bucks makes people more likely to say they are happy with their lives overall -- whether they are young or old, male or female, or living in cities or remote villages, the survey of more than 136,000 people in 132 countries found. But the survey also showed that a key element of what many people consider happiness -- positive feelings -- is much more strongly affected by factors other than cold, hard cash, such as feeling respected, being in control of your life, and having friends and family to rely on in a pinch.”

Have a great month and be happy.

Warmly,
Bea

Great Read

How to Win Friends & Influence People
Simon and Schuster (1936)
By Dale Carnegie

Learn: The six ways to make people like you, The twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking, The nine ways to change people without arousing resentment and much, much more!

Great Organizations

http://www.winnifredstewart.com

Winnifred Stewart Association
Since its establishment in 1953, WSA has evolved, grown, and empowered countless individuals with disabilities to discover their goals and dreams. Through exploration, experience, and sharing stories, Winnifred Stewart Association helps to facilitate meaningful relationships in order to build natural supports in an individual's chosen community. We support individuals with disabilities to realize their goals, and desires, and help to make the resources available and accessible for them to lead fulfilling lives.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perception, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling in these areas:

    Leadership Performance;
    People Management Success;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

September 2011

Building High Reliability

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Sunday, August 21, 2011 - Corporate Direction Provides Hope

Greetings Everyone

We all know defining a vision and setting goals helps us get where we want to go. For most of us, this strategy is entrenched in almost everything we do whether it is sports, education, our careers, business or even just dreaming. Do we do it well all the time? Only you can answer this. Along my journey I did learn one very important lesson, in good times and in bad, strong vision offers hope. In business, hope translates into loyalty and staff engagement.

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Corporate Direction Provides Hope

Early on in my career, I had the incredible opportunity to be a part of a team that helped redesign the Canadian Blood System. It came during a time when public confidence in the blood system was very low and a new corporate culture needed to be designed. I was a National Director at the time and flying across the country learning as much as I could about each blood centre. One of the gems coming out of my visit surprised even me. Everyone I talked to wanted to believe there was hope. Hope in the system and hope that the public would trust us again.

It was a difficult time for staff as change was happening very quickly. Staff needed to know how to contribute and were looking for answers any where they could find them. The answers came as quickly as the change did when the vision for the future of the blood system was clearly defined. That vision was to ensure a safe, secure and accessible supply of quality blood and blood products for all Canadians.

Transforming a large national organization is difficult in and of itself but to keep staff engaged, committed and contributing during the transition is even harder. Yet, without question the leadership did. Leadership offered hope!

We had a CEO that was clear about the vision, a VP of Marketing and Communication who was diligent about transparency and a leadership team that was always visible, listening and reporting. Looking back, I truly didn’t realize the impact of this leadership group at the time. They were so committed to the cause and walked the talk every day. Even in the worst of times, the CEO would address this national organization with candour, honesty and total engagement. What I valued the most is the vision staying clear in good times and bad. That consistency offered hope not only to the staff but also to the blood donors, the public, the regulatory bodies and most importantly, the potential blood recipients.

From this leadership team, I learned and will never forget:

1. To have a clear vision which offers direction and hope in good times and in bad;
2. Be visible, transparent and honest in good times and in bad;
3. Never shy away from challenges in good times and in bad; and
4. Listen to your staff in good times and in bad.

At the end of the day we knew what we had to do to be the best and the safest. This brought us together in hope, commitment and loyalty.

This article would not be complete without acknowledging that Canadian Blood Services continues to do incredible work in this country. They cannot, however, do it alone. My sister-in-law celebrated her 40th birthday this year by donating blood. I challenge you to celebrate life and the life of another by donating blood this month.

Warmly,
Bea

Approximately every minute of every day, someone in Canada needs blood. In fact, according to a recent poll, 52% of Canadians say they, or a family member, have needed blood or blood products for surgery or for medical treatment.
Canadian Blood Services 2011

Great Read

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
Grand Central Publishing 2010
By Tony Hsieh

The visionary CEO of Zappos explains how an emphasis on corporate culture can lead to unprecedented success.

Great Organizations

http://www.bloodservices.ca

Canadian Blood Services
The mandate of Canadian Blood Services is "to be responsible for a national blood supply system which assures access to a safe, secure, cost effective, affordable and accessible supply of quality blood, blood products and their alternatives, and supports their appropriate use." Specifically, Canadian Blood Services is responsible for:

• the development, implementation and audit/verification of standards and policies related to all aspects of safety within the regulatory framework that are related to the donors, the blood supply, and the recipients of blood and blood products; and

• the maintenance of surveillance, monitoring and timely response capability to deal with the sudden appearance of safety problems and emerging threats at any point in the blood supply.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perception, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling in these areas:

    Leadership Performance;
    People Management Success;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

August 2011

Building High Reliability

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com
Call: 780-221-4232

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Thursday, July 28, 2011 - Five Levels of Leadership

Greetings Everyone

I love John Maxwell’s FIVE LEVELS of LEADERSHIP. It reminds me that anyone can be a leader in his own right. The interesting thing is you can apply his leadership levels to almost anything, including corporate culture. If you don’t know who he is, John Maxwell is an internationally recognized leadership expert. His organization has trained over 2 million leaders worldwide.

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What Level of Leadership is Your Company Living?
John Maxwell’s FIVE LEVELS of LEADERSHIP

Here are John Maxwell’s FIVE LEVELS of LEADERSHIP. I am paraphrasing his work; however the just of the information is outlined. While reading through them, keep these two questions in mind:

1. What level are you at as a leader personally and professionally?
2. What level is your company culture at?

Level 1 - Leadership by Position: This level has not been earned. People do not really want to follow you because you have been placed in this position of authority but are not yet leading. If people do follow you, it is because they have to. This level attracts the very least loyalty.

Level 2 - Leadership by Permission: Level two occurs when there is some connection with your people (you do regular walk abouts and are seen by your staff). There is an overall attitude of service. You are able to grow beyond the title you hold as a leader. You have gained knowledge and confidence and people respect you for that.

Level 3 - Leadership by Contribution: Within this level it is clear you are contributing to the bottom-line and set a great example. Your confidence grows stronger because you set a great example which in turn grows your credibility.

Level 4 - Leadership by Development: At this level your focus is on growing your people as well as understanding and capitalizing on their strengths. Your people are happy because they are good at what they do, are contributing and continue to learn. They strongly feel their purpose (and yours!).

Level 5 - Leadership by Respect: When you get to this level you have really earned it! You are leading well and earning continuous respect for your leadership abilities and the quality of your results.

We all know leaders add value to the people they serve whether it is within the family unit, community or company. The interesting question is how to define that value. The quality of results just may help you define the level you or your company culture is at. It is an interesting thought to ponder.

Wherever you are at, I hope this summary will help you get to the next level. As John Maxwell says, “the best leaders provide the greatest value when serving others”.

Warmly,
Bea

Recommended Book
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
Thomas Belson 2007
By John Maxwell

Book Description: John C. Maxwell combines insights learned from his 40-plus years of leadership successes and mistakes with observations from the worlds of business, politics, sports, religion, and military conflict.

Great Organizations
http://www.winnifredstewart.com/

Since its establishment in 1953, WSA has evolved, grown, and empowered countless individuals with disabilities to discover their goals and dreams. Through exploration, experience, and sharing stories, Winnifred Stewart Association helps to facilitate meaningful relationships in order to build natural supports in an individual's chosen community. We support individuals with disabilities to realize their goals, and desires, and help to make the resources available and accessible for them to lead fulfilling lives.

Talk to us about providing your company with a Cultural Assessment

Culture drives how your team thinks and engages in company performance. Culture embodies the values and norms and is a true business metric.

We perform our signature 360° Cultural Assessment of perception, values and behaviours within the company and design an intuitive and comprehensive report card profiling in these areas:

    Leadership Performance;
    People Management Success;
    Communication Effectiveness;
    Motivation Factors;
    Job Satisfaction Levels; and
    Accountability & Responsibility Clarity.

Through this process it becomes very clear what is and is not aligned with the vision, mission and values of the company as well as the corporate infrastructure.

July 2011

Building High Reliability

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com Call: 780-221-4232

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Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - All About the Little Things

Greetings Everyone

I’ve been reflecting on some wonderful key learnings this past month. I had the privilege of hearing a CEO in Edmonton speak about positioning a company after the tragic loss of the leadership team in a plane crash. He earnestly spoke about what was really important for a thriving company culture; interestingly enough it wasn’t about the big things. That very same week I heard Seth Godin speak about what companies need to focus on when building a culture of performance. Yes, you can guess, he undeniable argues it is the little things that matter.

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All About the Little Things

I would never argue that setting goals and strategic plans are not important. On the contrary, they drive the direction for most companies, organizations and groups. These pillar definitions set the purpose for why businesses exist. Yet sometimes we get so caught up on the big goals and the ever present crisis of the day, we ignore the little things that build the strength in any business. Seth Godin calls them “the million little cuts that can destroy any company if not given the attention they deserve”. He believes that most crises will solve themselves but it is the consistent focus on the little actions and decisions that have a compound affect on success.

It really does make a lot of sense. When you’re taught at a young age to always be polite, say please and thank you and always tell the truth, you tend to cultivate people with integrity and gratitude. Small gestures and habits, if sincere and consistent, compound. One of my favourite examples of focusing on the little things comes from Zappos an online shoe and apparel ecommerce shop that hit the 1 billion dollar mark in annual sales after only 5 years in business. Zappos is recognized for building an incredible culture of staff and client engagement. As the story goes, CEO Tony Hsieh was so grateful that clients phoned his company he advised his staff to stay on with the client as long as they could. The goal was, don’t hang up until the caller is happy. A paradigm shift from the traditional call centre goal to talk to as many clients as possible keeping the conversation short and talking fast. Other companies I work with have had the same revelation and have implemented the following keep it simple and keep it simple focus:

1. Say thank more
2. Take an hour each week to mentor over lunch
3. Implement a policy to recognize new contributions to service delivery
4. Set priorities everyday
5. Communicate more with staff
6. Communicate more with clients
7. Smile more

Cultivating a strong culture of client and staff engagement isn’t complicated it just requires commitment, consistency and redirection to focus on the small stuff. Remember, great things come in small packages.

Have a wonderful month while enjoying the small things.

Warmly, Bea

Great Read:

Leadership Is Dead
How Influence Is Reviving It
By Jeremie Kubicek

Book Description: Kubicek's own successful model of leadership shows how to influence others for the common good versus manipulating others for one's own benefit.

Great Organizations:
http://www.winnifredstewart.com/

Since its establishment in 1953, WSA has evolved, grown, and empowered countless individuals with disabilities to discover their goals and dreams. Through exploration, experience, and sharing stories, Winnifred Stewart Association helps to facilitate meaningful relationships in order to build natural supports in an individual's chosen community. We support individuals with disabilities to realize their goals, and desires, and help to make the resources available and accessible for them to lead fulfilling lives.

March 2011

Building High Reliability

She has been responsible for leading countrywide transformation projects which included: driving cultural change and building high reliability performance
.
Bea has also had the privilege to study and work with leaders from high reliability industries such as aviation and NASA to understand how to build high reliability into a cultural framework.

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com Call: 780-221-4232

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Sunday, May 8, 2011 - Culture is Passion

Greetings Everyone

As I come back form Europe I came to realize one thing this past month: I need to travel more.

Italy: the Eternal Country steeped in history and memory. Paris, France: the romantic City of Lights and capital of fashion. Who knew that time spent in these places would lend itself to a better understanding of corporate culture? Yet, both had a profound impact on me. I had the incredible opportunity to experience these countries through the eyes of locals, the insights of my daughter, and the glorious past that has shaped the course of both places.
My moment of epiphany? Culture springs from the passion that feeds it.

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Culture is Passion:

As I watched the hustle and bustle of Italian life from a small café in Bologna, I could feel an indescribable energy. I grappled with the words, with the frustration of finding no adequate description for what I felt. I finally realized it was the feeling itself that mattered. This was a feeling that permeated the entire Italian landscape, and it had everything to do with the culture.
Italians are passionate about living in the now, with family, friends, food and wine as their means to achieve this end. They come from a proud history, a significant tradition rooted in art, architecture, education, religion and politics. You’d be hard pressed to find a local who couldn’t give you a quick history lesson. Yet, their pride of the past never overshadows the way they live in the present. Time with friends and family even take precedence over commerce; shops close for three hours in the afternoon just to enjoy a leisurely lunch with loved ones. Family over service, interesting? I also quickly learned it is incredibly rude to leave any dining table without having sincerely engaged in the conversation of the day.

Then, there is France. Many might describe the French culture as arrogant and self centred. My moment of epiphany did not hit until I was home. I was listening to a conversation describing Canadians as too polite to tell the truth. And that was it! It became quite obvious that France is not full of arrogant people, just people who don’t beat around the bush. People who tell it like it is. When you understand that, there is a very attractive elegance to the way they live and the way they express themselves. I marvelled in the streets of Paris as I watched men greet each other with an expressive embrace and three kisses cheek-to-cheek. Waiters pushing their customers to hurry up and order because they did not want to stand and wait. So, while French culture is far from polite, everyone knows where they stand.

It became clear to me that culture trumps everything if you are passionate about it. This means that you have to find your company passion in order to build a successful culture. Creating culture for strategic purposes will simply not work. A company must be clear on what it loves and values.
What is your company passionate about?

Great Read:
Drive, Daniel Pink, Barns and Noble 2010

Great Organizations:
http://www.winnifredstewart.com/

Since its establishment in 1953, WSA has evolved, grown, and empowered countless individuals with disabilities to discover their goals and dreams. Through exploration, experience, and sharing stories, Winnifred Stewart Association helps to facilitate meaningful relationships in order to build natural supports in an individual's chosen community. We support individuals with disabilities to realize their goals, and desires, and help to make the resources available and accessible for them to lead fulfilling lives.

May 2011

Building High Reliability

She has been responsible for leading countrywide transformation projects which included: driving cultural change and building high reliability performance
.
Bea has also had the privilege to study and work with leaders from high reliability industries such as aviation and NASA to understand how to build high reliability into a cultural framework.

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com Call: 780-221-4232

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011 - The Leadership Factor

Greetings Everyone

I’m off on an adventure with my daughter this month and thought I would send my April article early. There has been so much talk about leadership in the news, guess what I’ve decided to write about?

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The Leadership Factor:
How workplace engagement reflects company leadership

A recent 2010 Gallup study found that only 20% of people in North America are engaged at work. In fact, workplace disengagement is costing $380 billion dollars in the United States annually. These alarming figures remind us of how important staff engagement in the workplace really is. They also beg the question: what are we doing in our organizations? What is contributing to this breakdown in corporate culture?

The underlying issue is leadership. Or, more specifically, good leadership. The Gallup study goes on to show that if a manager ignores their employees, the rate of disengagement goes up 45%. This means that employees want to be noticed. In fact, if a manager does not ignore an employee but criticizes them, the rate of engagement goes to 20%. The reason: employees would rather be criticized than ignored.

While there are certainly many factors which contribute to workplace engagement, such as communication, autonomy and consistent feedback, none of these are a determining feature. All of them require action on the part of somebody to initiate their existence and then a vision to contain them. Communication is only valuable if we know who to listen to or how to interact with one another. Consistent feedback is only possible if there is someone to provide standards or to develop our skills. This is where a leader steps in. They are that crucial and unifying ingredient that makes a positive and productive working environment a reality. If a leader is not engaged with those that they work with or with what is being done, employees have little reason for making a contribution.

However, the definition of good leadership is often considered subjective. It is easily confused with a dynamic personality or charisma, someone who talks well or who knows how to fight for what they want. Perhaps they even own a white stallion and a trumpet fanfare accompanies their entrances. However, as history has proven time and time again, there are many different kinds of leaders. They come in all shapes and sizes. A good leader then is someone who actually knows what kind of leader that they are. This requires an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. This demands honesty and authenticity.

One thing that is severely lacking amidst the breakneck pace of the corporate world is time to self-reflect. As companies, as individuals, we hardly stop to ask ourselves where we are going in such a hurry. This self-reflection is especially crucial for authentic leadership. It starts with questions such as: What is my purpose as a leader? What do I want to contribute? What do I want those who I work with to say about me? How can I address the needs of those around me? Where are we going? In striving to find the answers for these questions, in cultivating this self awareness, we actually enable others to become leaders as well. In its most simplistic form, leadership is providing a good example. It makes it possible for other people to see better ways to do things.

As Dee Hock, the founder and former CEO of Visa noted: "Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time in leading yourself—your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct.” The process of becoming a leader is by no means instantaneous. It requires being responsible for answering some pretty tough questions. In the end, it’s really as much about growing yourself as it is about growing others. The result is engagement in a workplace where the roles of authority are not just simply to manage but to inspire.

Great Read:
The Soul of Leadership, Deepak Chopra, 2010, Crown Publishing Group.

Great Organizations:
http://www.winnifredstewart.com/

Since its establishment in 1953, WSA has evolved, grown, and empowered countless individuals with disabilities to discover their goals and dreams. Through exploration, experience, and sharing stories, Winnifred Stewart Association helps to facilitate meaningful relationships in order to build natural supports in an individual's chosen community. We support individuals with disabilities to realize their goals, and desires, and help to make the resources available and accessible for them to lead fulfilling lives.

March 2011

Building High Reliability

She has been responsible for leading countrywide transformation projects which included: driving cultural change and building high reliability performance
.
Bea has also had the privilege to study and work with leaders from high reliability industries such as aviation and NASA to understand how to build high reliability into a cultural framework.

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com Call: 780-221-4232

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Monday, March 7, 2011 - Designing Corporate Culture

Greetings Everyone

It’s finally here.
We’ve been re-branded and re-defined.
Yet, our passion for building unique corporate cultures continues.

Welcome to the new Bohm-Meyer Group.
Check out our website at www.bohm-meyergroup.com.

Subscription to BMG’s monthly newsletter provides meaningful “Food for Thoughts” on designing a corporate culture framework. Our goal is to provide the keys for translating ideas into everyday practice and to build high reliability into your company’s business performance. Your personal and professional success is our priority. Enjoy!

To unsubscribe from BMG’s mailing list, click on the “unsubscribe” tab below.

Designing Culture
…is like Building Tradition

Designing a corporate culture is very much like building a tradition. It takes Time, Commitment, Repetition and Clarity.

For instance, the staying power of many religions depends, in part, on the traditions that are tied to their systems of belief. The foundation of Buddhism relies heavily on practices and teachings which are maintained through discipline and repetitious meditation. An important practice of the Christian tradition is attending Sunday service. Most places of worship maintain traditional patterns of worship or rites through their constant repetition and preservation over time.

In the same way, the designing of corporate culture requires these four key elements. Without Time, Commitment, Repetition and Clarity, performance is impacted.

In 2004, I had the opportunity to work and learn alongside many industry leaders on how to develop a corporate culture framework. We met in Boston, MA. The industries gathered included Aviation, Space, Healthcare and Military. One of the most revealing cases that we researched came from the Aviation industry.

On December 28, 1978, United Airlines Flight No. 173 experienced a landing gear problem while on approach to runway 28R at Portland International Airport. The plane desperately circled as crew members scrambled to remedy the issue.

The aircraft ran out of fuel and crashed. There were 10 fatalities and 179 injuries.
The Assistant Pilot had believed that the Pilot knew what he was doing. He had thought it would be insubordinate if he mentioned that the gas gauge was on “Empty.”

This case was simple, tragic and it hit home. Similar problems were occurring throughout the industry on multiple levels. Cracks were beginning to show in the Aviation industry’s cultural infrastructure. In their most distilled form, all these cases pointed to a breakdown in the basic formula for culture. An analysis of the root cause identified the following:

1. Time: The Assistant Pilot was green

2. Commitment: The flight orientation consisted of only a quick introduction to the flight crew

3. Repetition: The Assistant Pilot had little real life experience in problem solving as a team

4. Clarity: The Pilot appeared to know what he was doing and the team did not want to question his authority

Think about it. The crew was highly trained, using some of the best operating procedures designed. Yet, something did not connect. If this can happen in the sky, it can happen anywhere. When performance is being tested, understanding needs to be the primary concern. Management is secondary.

Clarity: Are roles, goals and company values clear to everyone?

Repetition: Are you providing enough opportunities for proficiency to become reality?

Commitment: Is everyone, including management, ‘walking the talk?’

Time: How long have these practices been in place?

Strategy & Business Magazine reports that “new behaviours can be put in place, but only by reframing attitudes that are so entrenched that they are almost literally embedded in the physical pathways of employees’ neurons.” – Jeffrey Schwartz, Pablo Gaito, and Doug Lennick 2011

Today, aviation has become one of the safest and most reliable industries in the world. They have designed a cultural framework based on safety, incident reporting and analysis.

As I always say: “When a company focuses on its culture, performance becomes second nature.”

Have a great March.
Warmly,
Bea

Great Read:
The Soul of Leadership, Deepak Chopra, 2010, Crown Publishing Group.

Great Organizations:
http://www.winnifredstewart.com/

Since its establishment in 1953, WSA has evolved, grown, and empowered countless individuals with disabilities to discover their goals and dreams. Through exploration, experience, and sharing stories, Winnifred Stewart Association helps to facilitate meaningful relationships in order to build natural supports in an individual's chosen community. We support individuals with disabilities to realize their goals, and desires, and help to make the resources available and accessible for them to lead fulfilling lives.

March 2011

Building High Reliability

She has been responsible for leading countrywide transformation projects which included: driving cultural change and building high reliability performance
.
Bea has also had the privilege to study and work with leaders from high reliability industries such as aviation and NASA to understand how to build high reliability into a cultural framework.

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

www.bohm-meyergroup.com Call: 780-221-4232

$(Tracking)

Building High Reliability

Contact: Bohm-Meyer Group

Building High Reliability

Contact: Bohm-Meyer Group

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group

Contact:
Bohm-Meyer Group